Breakfast Wine: A Memoir of Chasing an Unconventional Life and Finding a Way Home

by Alex Poppe

Dress-obsessed and directionless, 44-year-old Alex Poppe can't get her life together. A business analyst, turned actor, turned teacher, she works a dead-end marketing job under a mammary gland-fixated man and still waits tables to make ends meet. A chance encounter with an acclaimed journalist encourages her to accept a teaching position in northern Iraq, which charms with a heart and a fist.
 
Dining with a pistol-packing hitman, being thrown off the back of a truck during a humanitarian aid drop, and unknowingly working alongside one of Sweden's most notorious sex offenders are colored-glass pieces of information that fall together in a turn, educating Alex in Kurdish culture and politics beyond what her students teach her in the classroom and what she experiences as a Western woman living in the Middle East. There are earthquakes and building fires and a small war juxtaposed against the senseless, drug-fueled death of a good friend and the bone chilling aftermath of the security police's investigation. Alex navigates teaching online during the COVID lockdown with the help of WhatsApp before her father's unexpected passing pushes her to return to the US.
 
Blending memoir, personal essay, local topography, and culture, Breakfast Wine is a frank, human story of pursuing an unconventional life and finding a way home.

Genres: Memoir

219 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 10, 2025

About the author

Living in that liminal space between theoretical and actual equality, Alex observes how violence reverberates across a life, fascinated by the human capacity for joy, wonder, and resilience, all of it shaping how people become who they are.

Alex Poppe is the author of four works of literary fiction: Duende by Regal House Publishing (2022), Jinwar and Other Stories by Cune Press (2022), Moxie by Tortoise Books (2019), and Girl, World by Laughing Fire Press (2017). Duende won the 2024 American Legacy Book Awards in the novella category, the 2023 International Book Awards in the novella category, and was a 2023 Spring Readers’ Choice Book Awards finalist. Jinwar and Other Stories won the 2023 Spring Readers’ Choice Book Award in the adult book category and was a 2022 International Book Awards finalist. In 2018, Girl, World was named a 35 Over 35 Debut Book Award winner, First Horizon Award finalist, Montaigne Medal finalist, Eric Hoffer Grand Prize finalist, and was awarded an Honorable Mention in General Fiction from the Eric Hoffer Awards. Her short fiction and nonfiction have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and commended for the Baker Prize among others. In 2021, Alex was an artist-in-residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, where Breakfast Wine began.

Reviews

[Kathy Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alex Poppe thrives on opening the doors and windows of her former homes. “Come and see!”

In Breakfast Wine, we get to know the profound restlessness that stirs Alex to place herself in a foreign land, surrounded by people forcibly displaced by war. She finds herself teaching English as a Second Language at an international school in northern Iraq. Swiftly, she learns the lingo necessary to accompany her students. As she records interactions with the young adults now peopling her life, we see her adapt, swiftly, to teenage humor, angst, disappointment and surprises. Alex discovers herself falling in love with the diverse and often quirky young people she faces, each day, after reciprocal “sizing up” yields to catalyzing solidarity.

Various “expats” befriend Alex in northern Iraq. She navigates her way through diplomatic circles, meets contractors on assignment in the region, and joins an inspired group of humanitarian rescuers.

Most of the characters Alex depicts have been directly affected by U.S. foreign policy and U.S. war making. Without Alex’s incisive writing, they would quite likely be unknown to any of the westerners who, by virtue of paying for wars in Iraq and the surrounding region, could reasonably be held accountable for war’s consequences.

In this highly inclusive “coming of age” narrative, Alex discloses the growth processes she herself experiences, along with her colleagues, lovers and friends.

I’ve long appreciated Alex’s readiness to push the borders of comfort zones. While accompanying people in exceedingly harsh circumstances, she steadfastly champions the right to resist tyrants, to challenge unjust systems.



What can change people’s minds? What will make people refuse and resist wars? Alex believes in the power of stories. Her impassioned writing in Breakfast Wine will roil the waters, fueling concern, evoking laughter, and touching “the deep heart’s core.”

Readers will find, in Breakfast Wine, an unusual contribution to anti-war literature and a lively call to uphold human rights.

[Sarah Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Review: Breakfast Wine by Alex Poppe

Breakfast Wine by Alex Poppe is a raw and unflinching collection of short stories that explores the fragile edges of human existence through characters grappling with addiction, displacement, and the search for connection. Poppe’s prose is both lyrical and brutal, crafting narratives that linger in the mind long after reading. Drawing from her experiences as an aid worker in conflict zones, the author brings an authenticity to these stories that elevates them beyond mere fiction into profound social commentary.

The collection’s greatest strength lies in its psychological depth. Poppe demonstrates remarkable skill in portraying characters who exist in liminal spaces—between sobriety and addiction, between cultures, between hope and despair. Stories like the titular Breakfast Wine and The Geometry of Leaving showcase her ability to capture the quiet desperation of individuals clinging to survival while maintaining their humanity. The writing is visceral without being gratuitous, particularly in depicting the physical and emotional toll of substance abuse.

Structurally, the stories vary in length and intensity, creating a rhythm that mirrors the unpredictability of the lives portrayed. While this approach effectively maintains tension, some transitions between stories feel abrupt, potentially disorienting readers seeking more continuity. The strongest pieces benefit from Poppe’s background in international aid work, where her firsthand knowledge of displacement and trauma lends extraordinary credibility to narratives involving refugees and expatriates.

Rating: 4.6/5

Section Scoring Breakdown:
-Character Development: 5/5 – Exceptionally nuanced psychological portraits
-Thematic Cohesion: 4.5/5 – Consistent exploration of alienation and resilience
-Narrative Technique: 4/5 – Experimental structure occasionally disrupts flow
-Emotional Impact: 5/5 – Profound, haunting storytelling
-Cultural Insight: 4.5/5 – Authentic depictions of displacement and cross-cultural tension

Thank you to NetGalley and the author, Alex Poppe, for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Kayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

From just the summary of the book, I was immediately drawn to Alex's incredible stories. This memoir is a testament to all who contemplate the definition of home. I felt like I was right there with Alex reading this book. I laughed, I cried, I smiled, and I felt many of the emotions that she explains because she is so relatable. Above all, this memoir teaches the important message that refugees are not what we see or read about in the news, they are real people who don't choose to be in the situation they are in.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it! Breakfast Wine is a different kind of memoir, a journey by an open-eyed traveler who peels away layers of the complex worlds she enters. The book interweaves perceptive insights with personal reflections; propelled by love and “warrior anger,” as she aptly terms it. Adventurous, curious, vulnerable, Poppe opens a window on Iraqi Kurdistan in this up-close and personal account of the challenges of navigating other cultures as a single white female. She draws precise and incisive portraits of wild characters and ordinary Iraqis, we relish her ferocious energy, her clarity, and her commitment to living intensely as she “tries on” different selves.

Breakfast Wine is a wild ride through Kurdish Iraq, by turns tragic, adventurous, hilarious and tender, written by a true explorer. What a joy to read.

[Susie Barker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Breakfast Wine is a captivating, entertaining, and enlightening read. Poppe drew me into her world with vivid detail. Reading her memoir, I felt as if I were riding beside her in the sweltering, dusty desert, observing a classroom full of reticent, giggly teens, sweating on a sun-washed balcony, or breathing in the scent of fruity shisha smoke while enswathed in a nightclub’s leather bench. Her sense of place is immersive and she sets the stage with vibrant descriptions that make every scene feel immediate.

Poppe’s voice is authentic and human. She invites you to trust her as she shares her observations with humility and allows complexity to exist on the page. Through her experiences and interactions, we see layers of Iraqi life that are often misunderstood from afar.

What I especially appreciate is her subtlety. Rather than instructing or insisting, she surreptitiously guides readers to consider new perspectives. She gently unsettles assumptions about culture, conflict, education, identity, and even ourselves without sounding didactic. Time and again, I found myself reconsidering things I thought I already understood.

Witnessing Poppe adapt, grow, and evolve on the pages was transportive and transformative. Not only did she allow me to gain a sense of someplace new, she enabled me to consider different perspectives, allowing me to see beyond the limits of my own prior assumptions.

[Vincent Bruckert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poppe possesses a great writer's voice. I feel I can hear her in the grain of every sentence--clear in articulation, reaching in its imaginative promise. The book does read like a thriller. It is also a history story. A portrait of a lady and of a point in time. An inspirational travelogue. A personal discovery tale. In a concise yet thorough set of chapters taking us through over a decade mostly in Kurdish Iraq, a richly expressive narrator guides us through worlds we will never know otherwise in parts of this planet that have dominated our new cycles in this century. But reading this book surely makes us more interested in them, which is the key, as the narrator states, to becoming interesting ourselves. It's also a fantastically drawn display of what it means to be a teacher. I have never read a more detailed classroom memoir. Curiosity, empathy, discovery, fear--this book captures so well how everything in this distant human experience, amplified by a war zone atmosphere, connects to the actual practice of education. Thanks for sharing the world with us in this wonderful read.

[Randy Richardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Breakfast Wine is a powerful and immersive memoir that transported me into the heart of northern Iraq through the eyes of Alex Poppe, a Western woman teaching in a war-torn land. Over the course of a decade, Poppe doesn’t just recount her experiences—she invites readers to live them alongside her, from dodging earthquakes to navigating the emotional wreckage of personal loss.

What makes this book stand out is its honesty and sensory richness. Poppe captures the tension of being an outsider in a place that is often inhospitable, yet she does so with empathy, insight, and even humor. Her reflections on identity, resilience, and the cost—and reward—of stepping far outside your comfort zone are deeply moving.

At once heartbreaking and uplifting, Breakfast Wine is a deeply human story that lingers long after the final page. A must-read for memoir lovers, global nomads, and anyone drawn to stories of transformation in the most unlikely of places.

[David R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

With self-effacing humor and unflinching candor, Ms. Poppe weaves a tangled and tortuous web of remembrances from her decade spent teaching in northern Iraq. Breakfast Wine deftly interweaves journalistic arm's length reporting on cultural differences and political events with deeply emotional first-person perspectives on the impacts those differences and events had on her and others. The effect is both heartening and heartbreaking as her taut tales whip you from one life-altering moment to the next. Reliving this decade with Poppe will have you questioning whether you have ever really lived at all. What The Taliban Shuffle does for war correspondents, Breakfast wine does for USAID and other NGO volunteers who go to places cruise ships don't and try to make a difference.

[Liz Brooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am grateful to have received a free advanced reader copy of this book, and am leaving a review voluntarily. I had difficulty getting into this book. I picked it up and put it down several times. It did not capture me the way other books and memoirs have, however, I did appreciate the information and stories provided. I think the author's experiences, drive, and resilience are incredibly honorable, and those experiences are great to share. I might have enjoyed a more linear narrative to keep me engaged from one set of experiences/chapter to the next. Nonetheless, the book does provide incredible insight and knowledge.

[Rachel Surls · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. While memoirs can sometimes be a little slow, I flew through this one. It took me on a journey to a part of the world I have never visited and know very little about. I found the stories of Ms. Poppe's students, coworkers, and friends fascinating, as well as the cultural divides that she describes so vividly. Some of these stories were heartbreaking, and others made me laugh out loud. Breakfast Wine is often sad, frequently funny, and overall, a wonderful glimpse into an adventurous and colorful life.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alex Poppe's "Breakfast Wine" is an excellent read for anyone who loves a journey of self-discovery and searching for what motivates someone in life. Poppe's adventures, good and bad, during her time as a TESL teacher takes the reader on a journey to places across the globe that most would not dare step foot in. This book is a memoir but reads as so much more. If you're looking for a great book for a chill afternoon or a flight, this is an amazing choice.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Breakfast Wine is a fascinating and moving account of an American woman living in Northern Iraq during a deeply formative time in her life. Poppe's writing is devastating, tender and often funny. Through Poppe’s eyes there is little judgement, only observation of humanity in a troubled society, where people struggle deeply but are resilient, full of the capacity for joy, wonder, and forgiveness.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alex Poppe is a rare writer, one capable of striking lucidity and complex moral reckonings, who is also often very funny. There's so much in this book--it's wise, entertaining, and memorable.

I can't recommend Breakfast Wine highly enough.

[thomas l. marquardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This raw account of a teacher's life in Kurdistan is compelling. Through her brilliant writing the reader absorbs what she painfully encounters in a clash of cultures. This page-turner is impossible to put down.

[Emily Permaul · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an incredible story Alex has and a gift to put it on paper in a poetic way. She provoked so much emotion. I laughed out loud, raged, and cried a little…

[Ronit Plank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a pleasure to read Breakfast Wine and then get to interview Alex Poppe for my podcast.

[Esther · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poppe does a great job of narrating her unconventional experiences as an international teacher and humanitarian aid worker; she is able to place the reader in the situation without sensationalizing the events. This allows the reader agency; we get to decide how we feel about the context and Poppe's responses. Such a gift in memoir!

[John Stanlake · Rating 5 out of 5]

An open, frank, unflinching and inspiring book that explores the numerous and diverse challenges humans face when embarking upon a journey into the unknown. Poppe is funny, expressive, empathetic and takes the reader along on a transformative journey with her.