Marina Benjamin grew up in London feeling estranged from her
family's exotic Middle Eastern ways. She refused to speak the
Arabic her mother and grandmother spoke at home. She rejected the
peculiar food they ate in favor of hamburgers and beer. But when
Benjamin had her own child a few years ago, she realized that she
was losing her link to the past.
In "Last Days in Babylon," Benjamin delves into the story of her
family's life among the Jews of Iraq in the first half of the
twentieth century. When Iraq gained independence in 1932, Jews were
the largest and most prosperous ethnic group in Baghdad. They
dominated trade and finance, hobnobbed with Iraqi dignitaries, and
lived in grandiose villas on the banks of the Tigris. Just twenty
years later the community had been utterly ravaged, its members
effectively expelled from the country by a hostile Iraqi
government. Benjamin's grandmother Regina Sehayek lived through it
all. Born in 1905, when Baghdad was still under Ottoman control,
her childhood was a virtual idyll. This privileged existence was
barely touched when the British marched into Iraq. But with the
rise of Arab nationalism and the first stirrings of anti-Zionism,
Regina, then a young mother, began to have dark premonitions of
what was to come. By the time Iraq was galvanized by war,
revolution, and regicide, Regina was already gone, her hair-raising
escape a tragic exodus from a land she loved -- and a permanent
departure from the husband whose gentle guiding hand had made her
the woman she was.
Benjamin's keen ear and fluid writing bring to life Regina's
Baghdad, both good and bad. More than a stirring story of survival,
"Last Days in Babylon" is a bittersweet portrait of Old World
Baghdad and its colorful Jewish community, whose roots predate the
birth of Islam by a thousand years and whose culture did much to
make Iraq the peaceful desert paradise that has since become a
distant memory.
In 2004 Benjamin visited Baghdad for the first time, searching
for the remains of its once vital Jewish community. What she
discovered will haunt anyone who seeks to understand a country that
continues to command the world's attention, just as it did when
Regina Sehayek proudly walked through Baghdad's streets. By turns
moving and funny, "Last Days in Babylon" is an adventure story, a
riveting history, and a timely reminder that behind today's
headlines are real people whose lives are caught -- too often
tragically -- in the crossfire of misunderstanding, age-old
prejudice, and geopolitical ambition.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
