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A Devil's Child: On the run from revenge in Saddam’s Iraq
A forbidden love. A vengeful husband who will kill to survive. A desperate search for a kidnapped child. Will Anna find her daughter in war-time Iraq?
When journalist Anna in Amsterdam marries the Iraqi photographer Karim, she cannot suspect how many secrets he hides, and how they will affect her life. Nor does she know that meeting her Iranian colleague Davoud in Tehran will lead to many more of those, as well as to the who is the father of her daughter Zina?
After the birth, Karim and Anna grow apart, until he disappears, taking Zina with him. This leads to a suspenseful search for the little girl. Security services get involved, and as Anna and Davoud have to go into hiding, they find out that they are no longer safe anywhere.
The search eventually leads to Iraq, where Anna discovers the horrible truth behind Karim’s lies. All through the story, Saddam Hussein’s brutal policy against the Kurds as well as the invasion that will lead to his demise play an important role. The story ends at the site where the Iraqi dictator has been captured, and where Anna is confronted with her past for one last time.
Devil’s Child is a book for those who love reading literary thrillers and novels that are based on real-life events.
Reviews for A Devil's
It is very well possible to write a suspenseful novel and situate it in an existing world. Judit Neurink’s latest novel is situated mainly in the Kurdish part of Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s cruel rule. We are confronted with political intrigue in an atmosphere of threats and danger. But nowhere, the story loses its believability, this does not seem to be made up, it is real. It’s fiction, but it feels as if I was there.
Rina Spigt, journalist
Judit Neurink presents a love story set amidst radical Islamic hush-hush meetings with activists, teas in muted households, and deadly betrayal and intrigue. While it is fiction, Neurink weaves in personal insights from her many years of living and working in the Middle East. Thankfully, in this tale, female tenacity triumphs.
Kathryn Lukey-Coutsocostas, columnist/journalist/features writer
Judit Neurink draws on her long experience reporting on Iraq and the Kurds to craft another layered story where the conflicts in the headlines play out in the emotional battles fought by her characters. Love can skew our judgement and so can politics. Anna must navigate these two passions as she untangles the truths in Iraq and in her relationships to investigate, on the field but also in her heart, a shocking “Your husband is a murderer.”
Diane Shugart, writer and translator
Judit Neurink wrote the novel The Jewish Bride, that was well received by Kurdish readers. And again, in her latest novel, A Devil’s Child, she pictures individuals from the Kurdish society, portraying their suffering better than many Iraqi writers. It is a novel to understand the wars and the power of dictators, the effect they have on the souls of the people and on the reasons they flee, and return again and again, to rebuild their lives. A novel that makes me, as a Kurdish writer, wonder how Neurink, as a Dutch writer, has been able to tell our story with such a depth and honesty, in such a way that it shows the mind of the Iraqi individual.
Miran Abraham, writer and translator
When journalist Anna in Amsterdam marries the Iraqi photographer Karim, she cannot suspect how many secrets he hides, and how they will affect her life. Nor does she know that meeting her Iranian colleague Davoud in Tehran will lead to many more of those, as well as to the who is the father of her daughter Zina?
After the birth, Karim and Anna grow apart, until he disappears, taking Zina with him. This leads to a suspenseful search for the little girl. Security services get involved, and as Anna and Davoud have to go into hiding, they find out that they are no longer safe anywhere.
The search eventually leads to Iraq, where Anna discovers the horrible truth behind Karim’s lies. All through the story, Saddam Hussein’s brutal policy against the Kurds as well as the invasion that will lead to his demise play an important role. The story ends at the site where the Iraqi dictator has been captured, and where Anna is confronted with her past for one last time.
Devil’s Child is a book for those who love reading literary thrillers and novels that are based on real-life events.
Reviews for A Devil's
It is very well possible to write a suspenseful novel and situate it in an existing world. Judit Neurink’s latest novel is situated mainly in the Kurdish part of Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s cruel rule. We are confronted with political intrigue in an atmosphere of threats and danger. But nowhere, the story loses its believability, this does not seem to be made up, it is real. It’s fiction, but it feels as if I was there.
Rina Spigt, journalist
Judit Neurink presents a love story set amidst radical Islamic hush-hush meetings with activists, teas in muted households, and deadly betrayal and intrigue. While it is fiction, Neurink weaves in personal insights from her many years of living and working in the Middle East. Thankfully, in this tale, female tenacity triumphs.
Kathryn Lukey-Coutsocostas, columnist/journalist/features writer
Judit Neurink draws on her long experience reporting on Iraq and the Kurds to craft another layered story where the conflicts in the headlines play out in the emotional battles fought by her characters. Love can skew our judgement and so can politics. Anna must navigate these two passions as she untangles the truths in Iraq and in her relationships to investigate, on the field but also in her heart, a shocking “Your husband is a murderer.”
Diane Shugart, writer and translator
Judit Neurink wrote the novel The Jewish Bride, that was well received by Kurdish readers. And again, in her latest novel, A Devil’s Child, she pictures individuals from the Kurdish society, portraying their suffering better than many Iraqi writers. It is a novel to understand the wars and the power of dictators, the effect they have on the souls of the people and on the reasons they flee, and return again and again, to rebuild their lives. A novel that makes me, as a Kurdish writer, wonder how Neurink, as a Dutch writer, has been able to tell our story with such a depth and honesty, in such a way that it shows the mind of the Iraqi individual.
Miran Abraham, writer and translator
201 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 2023
1 person want to read
About the author
Judit Neurink
31 books20 followersJudit Neurink (pen name: Judit Antonia, 1957) reported on the rise and fall of terror group ISIS, while working as a correspondent in Iraq for Dutch and international media (2008-2019). She wrote ‘The war on ISIS’ and ‘Slaves wives and brides’, the latter about women caught up inside the Caliphate. Her book ‘Violence Recycled’ (2021) is a personal report of a decade in Iraq while it moved from war to peace and back again.
She wrote ten books, almost all about Iraq. Her latest two novels are about life inside the Caliphate in Iraq and Syria (The Good Terrorist), and about the search for a kidnapped child in war-time Iraq (A Devil's Child).
She wrote ten books, almost all about Iraq. Her latest two novels are about life inside the Caliphate in Iraq and Syria (The Good Terrorist), and about the search for a kidnapped child in war-time Iraq (A Devil's Child).
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