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I, Who Did Not Die
Khorramshahr, Iran, May 1982—It was the bloodiest battle of one of the most brutal wars of the twentieth century, and Najah, a twenty-nine-year-old wounded Iraqi conscript, was face to face with a thirteen-year-old Iranian child soldier who was ordered to kill him. Instead, the boy committed an astonishing act of mercy. It was an act that decades later would save his own life. This is a remarkable story. It is gut-wrenching, essential, and astonishing. It’s a war story. A love story. A page-turner of vast moral dimensions. An eloquent and haunting act of witness to horrors beyond grimmest fiction, and a thing of towering beauty. More importantly, it is a story that must be told, and a richly textured view into an overlooked conflict and misunderstood region. This is the great untold story of the children and young men whose lives were sacrificed at the whim of vicious dictators and pointless, barbaric wars. Little has been written of the Iran-Iraq war, which was among the most brutal conflicts of the twentieth century, one fought with chemical weapons, ballistic missiles, and cadres of child soldiers. The numbers involved are —All told, it claimed 700,000 lives—200,000 Iraqis, and 500,000 Iranians.—Young men of military service age—eighteen and above in Iraq, fifteen and above in Iran—died in the greatest numbers.—80,000 Iranian child soldiers were killed, mostly between the ages of sixteen and seventeen.—The two countries spent a combined 1.1 trillion dollars fighting the war. Rarely does this kind of reportage succeed so power- fully as literature. More rarely still does such searingly brilliant literature—fit to stand beside Remarque, Hemingway, and O’Brien—emerge from behind “enemy” lines. But Zahed, a child, and Najah, a young restaurateur, are rare men—not just survivors, but masterful, wondrously gifted storytellers. Written with award-winning journalist Meredith May, this is literature of a very high order, set down with passion, urgency, and consummate skill. This story is an affirmation that, in the end, it is our humanity that transcends politics and borders and saves us all.
293 pages, Paperback
First published March 28, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 158 reviews
July 17, 2019
I do not like this book at all. I feel tricked and I am angry. I will explain why.
I am stopping at the half-way mark. Please keep in mind I only give up on a book when I am sure there is not the slightest chance I might begin to enjoy / appreciate it.
The book is stated to be autobiographical non-fiction.
I see this as a young adult book. It should be sold as such. Some books for kids are equally good for adult readers, but this is not. I have tried to convince myself that the central characters are young and that this is why they speak as they do. This is simply a poor excuse. The book is sold as being about a serious topic—an incident that occurred during the Iran Iraq War of 1980-1988. An Iranian child soldier makes the dangerous choice to NOT kill his enemy, he whom he has been ordered to kill, an Iraq soldier lying in a bunker among the many wounded and dead. He saves the man’s life; he takes him to a hospital where he will be cared for. This does happen, and I assume it is true, but pages and pages are about falling in love and passion and sex. Of course, there is nothing wrong with a book about love, if you tell people that is what it will be about and if it is well written. This it is not. Furthermore, there is no indication in the book description that young adults are the book’s prime audience.
Here are some quotes to give you a feel for the prose:
"I had destroyed our lives for one moment of passion."
"My lips were quivering as I leaned forward."
"Storm clouds gathered on his brow."
"My mind felt like a tennis ball pinging back and forth."
"I wasn't sure about all the martyr stuff."
The prose is simplistic. The dialogs too. The language spoken is often crude.
Rather than being an informative book about the Iran Iraq War, what is delivered are soppy love stories. Battle scenes are described in such a manner as to excite rather than to inform. We are told the book’s content is true, and yet the dialogues must be made up.
Rather than being informative, I believe the book is instead meant to be exciting and inspirational.
Lastly, the narrator of the audiobook is Mikael Naramore. He dramatizes the lines. When lines lack finesse and are stretched and exaggerated, they become even worse. Authors should read their books out loud. When this is done, poorly written lines become even more evident. Are the lines then exaggerated through over-dramatization, as is done here, the result is far from enjoyable.
I have given both the audiobook narration and the written book one star.
The book is sold under two different names—My Enemy, My Brother and I, Who Did Not Die: A Sweeping Story of Loss, Redemption and Fate.
I am stopping at the half-way mark. Please keep in mind I only give up on a book when I am sure there is not the slightest chance I might begin to enjoy / appreciate it.
The book is stated to be autobiographical non-fiction.
I see this as a young adult book. It should be sold as such. Some books for kids are equally good for adult readers, but this is not. I have tried to convince myself that the central characters are young and that this is why they speak as they do. This is simply a poor excuse. The book is sold as being about a serious topic—an incident that occurred during the Iran Iraq War of 1980-1988. An Iranian child soldier makes the dangerous choice to NOT kill his enemy, he whom he has been ordered to kill, an Iraq soldier lying in a bunker among the many wounded and dead. He saves the man’s life; he takes him to a hospital where he will be cared for. This does happen, and I assume it is true, but pages and pages are about falling in love and passion and sex. Of course, there is nothing wrong with a book about love, if you tell people that is what it will be about and if it is well written. This it is not. Furthermore, there is no indication in the book description that young adults are the book’s prime audience.
Here are some quotes to give you a feel for the prose:
"I had destroyed our lives for one moment of passion."
"My lips were quivering as I leaned forward."
"Storm clouds gathered on his brow."
"My mind felt like a tennis ball pinging back and forth."
"I wasn't sure about all the martyr stuff."
The prose is simplistic. The dialogs too. The language spoken is often crude.
Rather than being an informative book about the Iran Iraq War, what is delivered are soppy love stories. Battle scenes are described in such a manner as to excite rather than to inform. We are told the book’s content is true, and yet the dialogues must be made up.
Rather than being informative, I believe the book is instead meant to be exciting and inspirational.
Lastly, the narrator of the audiobook is Mikael Naramore. He dramatizes the lines. When lines lack finesse and are stretched and exaggerated, they become even worse. Authors should read their books out loud. When this is done, poorly written lines become even more evident. Are the lines then exaggerated through over-dramatization, as is done here, the result is far from enjoyable.
I have given both the audiobook narration and the written book one star.
The book is sold under two different names—My Enemy, My Brother and I, Who Did Not Die: A Sweeping Story of Loss, Redemption and Fate.
February 20, 2019
This story is so sad, so tragic so uplifting and so hopeful all at the same time. It tells the story of two soldiers, one a child soldier fighting with the Basij for the Ayatollah Khomeini, and the other a conscripted Iraqi soldier fighting for Saddam Hussein. Their paths crossed early in the war between Iran and Iraq in the early 80’s. They both ended up prisoners of war. The inhumanity of their treatment brought me to tears several times. That they could survive and not lose faith in mankind is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.
August 22, 2017
My words won't do this book justice. Read it, be prepared to be sickened by what we humans do to each other but uplifted by the resilience and hope these two men radiate. An incredibly well written account of the atrocities of war and the redemptive power of forgiveness. Wish I was a history teacher if only to make this book required reading.
May 10, 2018
It's hard to describe this book without a spoiler. Let's just say that the book has an utterly amazing and unforgettable ending! Since this a true story, it will reinforce your belief that this world a fascinating and unbelievable place sometimes.
You'd think this book would be a big downer, just because of the topic. We hear alternating stories of (a) an Iraqi man in his late 20's who joins Saddam Hussein's army during the Iran/Iraq War; and (b) an Iranian child soldier on the opposite side of the same war. The child soldier saves the Iraqi's life, and then both end up in POW camps. It's a sickening, awful description of what these two men went through, sometimes in civilian life, sometimes in the military or in prison. But ...
It's worth going through all the grief of the main characters, because they are each honorable, in their own ways. They are far from saints. Yet there is a basic human dignity that endears them to the reader. We can understand why they made the decisions they did. We learn why a child would volunteer to be cannon fodder for Khomeini's army, and how Iraqis were conscripted against their will. We see how POWs on either side were held for up to ten years after the war ended. We watch people being tortured, and civilians being bombed. One of the main characters had to clean up after the genocide in Halabja, an especially gruesome section of the book.
One important thing is that we learn about the complexities of the Iran/Iraq War. It lasted eight years, and 700,000 people were killed. The introduction says that nearly 40 percent of the adult men in Iran and Iraq were involved. It accomplished absolutely nothing for either party; no change of borders, and no peace treaty. So one theme is the sheer waste and futility of war -- on nations, families and individuals.
Another theme, though, is the transcendence of human bonding. In the magic of a moment, two people can have a connection that defies understanding. They may be enemies in a war, or younger/older, or Shia/Sunni, or Arab/Persian. Yet something divine can occur that will change lives. This book describes one of those miraculous connections.
You'd think this book would be a big downer, just because of the topic. We hear alternating stories of (a) an Iraqi man in his late 20's who joins Saddam Hussein's army during the Iran/Iraq War; and (b) an Iranian child soldier on the opposite side of the same war. The child soldier saves the Iraqi's life, and then both end up in POW camps. It's a sickening, awful description of what these two men went through, sometimes in civilian life, sometimes in the military or in prison. But ...
It's worth going through all the grief of the main characters, because they are each honorable, in their own ways. They are far from saints. Yet there is a basic human dignity that endears them to the reader. We can understand why they made the decisions they did. We learn why a child would volunteer to be cannon fodder for Khomeini's army, and how Iraqis were conscripted against their will. We see how POWs on either side were held for up to ten years after the war ended. We watch people being tortured, and civilians being bombed. One of the main characters had to clean up after the genocide in Halabja, an especially gruesome section of the book.
One important thing is that we learn about the complexities of the Iran/Iraq War. It lasted eight years, and 700,000 people were killed. The introduction says that nearly 40 percent of the adult men in Iran and Iraq were involved. It accomplished absolutely nothing for either party; no change of borders, and no peace treaty. So one theme is the sheer waste and futility of war -- on nations, families and individuals.
Another theme, though, is the transcendence of human bonding. In the magic of a moment, two people can have a connection that defies understanding. They may be enemies in a war, or younger/older, or Shia/Sunni, or Arab/Persian. Yet something divine can occur that will change lives. This book describes one of those miraculous connections.
December 1, 2018
I always find it hardest to review the books that truly move me, the ones that strike a piquant note in my soul then reverberate outward into reflective thoughts about the world with all of its successes, setbacks, sufferings, and small - though by no means insignificant - surprises. Some stories, like this one, are so grim and grotesque in their depiction of atrocious human trials yet are so uplifting in their examination of the way in which human courage, strength, decency, and connection can prevail, that I’m left nearly speechless by the end. At a loss for adequate words.
So as a result, these misty tears, which I take no pains to hide as I finish Zahed and Najah’s narrative war journeys, choke coherency in my throat. I am grasping at threads of thought. After all, how can I begin to convey the resounding impact such a turbulent, complex tale leaves behind without falling demonstrably short somewhere?
(It’s impossible. Inevitable, really.)
The truth is there are no expertly crafted words I can express. I can apply no perfect metaphor or analogy that will scratch (let alone touch) upon the reservoir of emotion this intertwined tale about mercy and brutality, about human kindness in the face of indoctrinated hate and unspeakable horrors, left inside of me. If you’re anything like me, you’ll read it and think. You may cry, too, but mostly you’ll think.
This book haunts.
This book chills then warms you to the bone.
This book forces you to ruminate over all of humanity’s differences - big and small, political or non-political - until you recognize that we all have “two eyes, a nose and a mouth...that we [are all] the same.”
It cuts deep into the multifaceted moralities and desperations of the Iran/Iraq war where little was gained besides that of death. Torture. Bloodshed. It shines light on this deeply misunderstood regional conflict, chipping away at misconceptions by constructing it around two personal histories, around two people on opposite sides of the same fight who were bred to hate, fear, and kill one another...but didn’t.
Zahed and Najah’s story teaches that compassion is more powerful than machine guns. It shows that, humanity, even amid its darkest, most barbaric impulses and pronouncements, is indestructible.
In short, I am beyond grateful I picked this up. I won’t lie, these pages are bound to punch you in the gut time and again but the pain is a welcome sacrifice for such an enlightening read. I promise you’ll finish it with a fuller heart, and a mind swollen with the meaning of true human decency.
PLEASE READ IT AND COME THINK WITH ME, YA’LL.
So as a result, these misty tears, which I take no pains to hide as I finish Zahed and Najah’s narrative war journeys, choke coherency in my throat. I am grasping at threads of thought. After all, how can I begin to convey the resounding impact such a turbulent, complex tale leaves behind without falling demonstrably short somewhere?
(It’s impossible. Inevitable, really.)
The truth is there are no expertly crafted words I can express. I can apply no perfect metaphor or analogy that will scratch (let alone touch) upon the reservoir of emotion this intertwined tale about mercy and brutality, about human kindness in the face of indoctrinated hate and unspeakable horrors, left inside of me. If you’re anything like me, you’ll read it and think. You may cry, too, but mostly you’ll think.
This book haunts.
This book chills then warms you to the bone.
This book forces you to ruminate over all of humanity’s differences - big and small, political or non-political - until you recognize that we all have “two eyes, a nose and a mouth...that we [are all] the same.”
It cuts deep into the multifaceted moralities and desperations of the Iran/Iraq war where little was gained besides that of death. Torture. Bloodshed. It shines light on this deeply misunderstood regional conflict, chipping away at misconceptions by constructing it around two personal histories, around two people on opposite sides of the same fight who were bred to hate, fear, and kill one another...but didn’t.
Zahed and Najah’s story teaches that compassion is more powerful than machine guns. It shows that, humanity, even amid its darkest, most barbaric impulses and pronouncements, is indestructible.
In short, I am beyond grateful I picked this up. I won’t lie, these pages are bound to punch you in the gut time and again but the pain is a welcome sacrifice for such an enlightening read. I promise you’ll finish it with a fuller heart, and a mind swollen with the meaning of true human decency.
PLEASE READ IT AND COME THINK WITH ME, YA’LL.
December 21, 2018
I'm an avid fan for books about wars and I have always regretted that there are not many good novels about Iran-Iraq war. This book allows the reader to look at the Iran-Iraq war from the perspectives of both a 13-yr Iranian boy and a young Iraqi guy at his mid 20. This multi-angle and unbiased view of this war better enlighten the meaninglessness of it and the concept of war in general. From the book:
"We may not be brothers by blood or nationality, but we are brothers in the human spirit, and that lasts longer than any culture or tradition or history, and will continue to exist long past life itself"
"We may not be brothers by blood or nationality, but we are brothers in the human spirit, and that lasts longer than any culture or tradition or history, and will continue to exist long past life itself"
September 24, 2017
I was sad to close the book because I wanted to stay with these two characters. I miss them.
June 5, 2019
Wow, this is such a powerful book. Heartbreaking and gut wrenching, yet beautiful.
April 17, 2017
Wonderfully moving and very well-written. The story is both heartbreaking and inspiring- also learned a great deal about the Iran-Iraq war.
May 30, 2017
Never have I read such a harrowing book - what these two men went through and survived will haunt me for a long time. The description of their meeting at the end of the book brought me to tears.
July 25, 2019
If you can read this book without weeping there is something wrong with you. I, Who Did Not Die is both brutal and beautiful.
I was searching for a book about the Iran/Iraq War to continue my study of things that were current events when I was in college and are now history. What I found in I, Who Did Not Die was a an account of the war through the microcosm of two soldiers, an Iranian Child Soldier and an Iraqi tank driver in his late twenties. Narrating to Meredith May through interpreters, both men tell their stories from the very beginning: The young Iranian joined up to escape his abusive father. The older Iraqi, who had already served eight years in the army prior to the war, reluctantly returned from an overseas vacation and reenlisted only to protect his family from government retribution.
Without divulging any more of the story, I will state that this book is not merely an account of war. It provides an intimate look at the lives of ordinary people and their families -some living and some barely subsisting- in Saddam Hussein's military dictatorship and in the theocracy of Revolutionary Iran. Their astonishing stories made me laugh and cry. This book is truly a story of hope, perseverance, love, forgiveness and redemption.
After reading I, Who Did Not Die I had not only a good understanding of the Iran/Iraq War, but an even better understanding of its victims and their cultures.
I was searching for a book about the Iran/Iraq War to continue my study of things that were current events when I was in college and are now history. What I found in I, Who Did Not Die was a an account of the war through the microcosm of two soldiers, an Iranian Child Soldier and an Iraqi tank driver in his late twenties. Narrating to Meredith May through interpreters, both men tell their stories from the very beginning: The young Iranian joined up to escape his abusive father. The older Iraqi, who had already served eight years in the army prior to the war, reluctantly returned from an overseas vacation and reenlisted only to protect his family from government retribution.
Without divulging any more of the story, I will state that this book is not merely an account of war. It provides an intimate look at the lives of ordinary people and their families -some living and some barely subsisting- in Saddam Hussein's military dictatorship and in the theocracy of Revolutionary Iran. Their astonishing stories made me laugh and cry. This book is truly a story of hope, perseverance, love, forgiveness and redemption.
After reading I, Who Did Not Die I had not only a good understanding of the Iran/Iraq War, but an even better understanding of its victims and their cultures.
November 25, 2017
This memoir tells the story of two men one Iranian, one Iraqi. It starts with their childhoods and lives in better times before the Iran Iraq war. Zahed (Iraqi) joined the Basij paramilitary at just 13 to escape an abusive father and try to find the family he didn't have at home. Najah (Iranian) came from a typical middle class family with good memories. He didn't join voluntarily, but was conscripted at 18.
So much is covered in this story, their immediate family, how their lives were affected (and some lost to the war). Their loves, children, POW experiences, and eventual emigration to Canada.
The extent that Zahed went to to save Najah risking his own life if caught was unbelievable. The detail Zahed was assigned to in Halabja to clean up the corpses was heart breaking. To this day we hear of chemical attacks, but not to the detail that Zahed writes of. I pictured it as an horrific version of what happened in Pompeii. He spoke of life just frozen in a moment. How it was incomprehensible to see people who showed no signs of being blown apart from bombs or bullets. Just people who looked perfect except for some grey foam coming from their mouths.
The book is great because it goes full circle and you get to follow Zahed and Najah to current times.
Very moving story that I would highly recommend.
So much is covered in this story, their immediate family, how their lives were affected (and some lost to the war). Their loves, children, POW experiences, and eventual emigration to Canada.
The extent that Zahed went to to save Najah risking his own life if caught was unbelievable. The detail Zahed was assigned to in Halabja to clean up the corpses was heart breaking. To this day we hear of chemical attacks, but not to the detail that Zahed writes of. I pictured it as an horrific version of what happened in Pompeii. He spoke of life just frozen in a moment. How it was incomprehensible to see people who showed no signs of being blown apart from bombs or bullets. Just people who looked perfect except for some grey foam coming from their mouths.
The book is great because it goes full circle and you get to follow Zahed and Najah to current times.
Very moving story that I would highly recommend.
January 25, 2020
I, Who Did Not Die is an epic story that surpasses the test of time. Truly an amazing and perilous journey of two soldiers whose crossroads led to one another. It was an easy and attention-grabbing book that delivered real accounts that were mind-blowing in nature. It sounded like it was fictitious however these were the actual events of a war that was fought for naught.
April 17, 2021
A memoir of two men who met briefly during the Irani/Iraqi war of the 1980s. Thier lives retold and shared regarding their family lives and their lives as soldiers and POWs on opposite sides of the war. The book is a brutal look at war, the inhumanity of man, and yet there is hope that keeps the spirit alive. Gut-wrenching, heart-breaking story of courage amisdst suffering, strength and endurance, family and forgiveness. A haunting story of survival.
November 23, 2019
Incredible story
December 9, 2018
Believe.
April 3, 2020
Two men from opposite sides of the Iran-Iraq war meet again in Canada after 20 years. Despite years of torture, hunger and inhumane treatment, both men continue to dream of a better life.
An amazing true story that will give you goosebumps at the end.
An amazing true story that will give you goosebumps at the end.
January 15, 2019
A gripping, often grim, honest account of human cruelty, with an ending that affirms life unforgettably! I will reread the whole book sometime again, and the last chapter frequently!
January 4, 2018
Such a haunting tale. I couldn’t put it down and certainly felt the pain, anger, happiness, and hope that these two men experienced. I’ll forever have this book in my mind. Certainly a favorite.
June 7, 2019
Man’s inhumanity towards others- especially when supposedly done in the name of God - is incomprehensible. But this is such an incredible story of compassion and grace that I will never forget it. You would never write this story if it wasn’t true - it would have been too unbelievable. Our smallest acts of mercy can change lives forever.
May 15, 2019
Incredible story.
Unbelievable and unfortunately true. The suffering is unimaginable. I am glad I read it but I regret that any humans would suffer like these guys.
Unbelievable and unfortunately true. The suffering is unimaginable. I am glad I read it but I regret that any humans would suffer like these guys.
April 24, 2018
Very gut-wrenching, tragic true story. I could not stop reading till finished the whole book over the weekend. I really enjoyed the way they organized chapters, switching between Iraqi and Iranian soldiers one coming after. It is a very strong and touching memoir and made me cry many times. Highly recommended if you are looking for virgin untouched histories beyond the Iran-Iraq war.
August 1, 2017
Extraordinary page turner
An unbelievable story of humans' indomitable spirit that seeks to survive despite the chaos and brutality they are immersed in.
What makes this book singularly compelling is that it tells the story of two men as fully fleshed-out individuals with stories about their families, their first loves, their school days, and how they had to endure a winding path through a violent conflict that was not something they either one believed in, cared about, or even wanted to participate in. But nonetheless, they found themselves in the midst of a raging war, and they each were compelled to survive.
In theory, they were enemies, but in reality, they were just two men born at the wrong time in the wrong place and therefore got sucked into a pointless war that raged on for eight years achieving nothing.
The book is a page turner because everything that happens in their lives is so amazing and foreign, yet the men themselves could be your neighbor or your brother, because their hopes and dreams really are that familiar. You really get a sense of their character and their canny ability for survival. And each man has a love that he wants to remain alive for, a love that drives them to do what they can to survive so that they can get back home.
In the heat of battle, one of them saves the other, and that act is critical to each man but for different reasons. For the saved, naturally it saves his life, which gives him the opportunity to carry-on. And for the savior, it was an act that would help him remember he was a human and worthy of redemption himself, despite the acts he committed as a soldier.
It really is an astonishing read.
An unbelievable story of humans' indomitable spirit that seeks to survive despite the chaos and brutality they are immersed in.
What makes this book singularly compelling is that it tells the story of two men as fully fleshed-out individuals with stories about their families, their first loves, their school days, and how they had to endure a winding path through a violent conflict that was not something they either one believed in, cared about, or even wanted to participate in. But nonetheless, they found themselves in the midst of a raging war, and they each were compelled to survive.
In theory, they were enemies, but in reality, they were just two men born at the wrong time in the wrong place and therefore got sucked into a pointless war that raged on for eight years achieving nothing.
The book is a page turner because everything that happens in their lives is so amazing and foreign, yet the men themselves could be your neighbor or your brother, because their hopes and dreams really are that familiar. You really get a sense of their character and their canny ability for survival. And each man has a love that he wants to remain alive for, a love that drives them to do what they can to survive so that they can get back home.
In the heat of battle, one of them saves the other, and that act is critical to each man but for different reasons. For the saved, naturally it saves his life, which gives him the opportunity to carry-on. And for the savior, it was an act that would help him remember he was a human and worthy of redemption himself, despite the acts he committed as a soldier.
It really is an astonishing read.
April 20, 2019
What a journey, what a story! Amazing to learn how an older Iraqi soldier & a young teenage Iranian Basij soldier meet up on the filling fields of the Iran-Iraq War. Alternating perspectives in each chapter, as their stories unfold, connect, disconnect, and then finally reconnect. Pretty hard/gory stuff in the war and then as both of them experience life as POWs.
March 20, 2018
Autobiographies of 2 Iran-Iraq war veterans; one is Iraqi, one Iranian. The war starts in 1982 and ends in 1988. Both men are the oldest son in a big family and both drop out of school. Zahed is a 12-year-old boy soldier for Iran. Najah is a conscripted ex-soldier with a thriving falafel joint in Basra, Iraq. Neither soldier is particularly political or religious, but they love the smell of their city and the sound of their own language. Iran as Persia had been fighting Iraq as the Ottoman Empire for centuries, but neither man cared about history or the current leader of their country. The US press reporting on this war was spotty, horror at Saddam gassing the Kurds, statistics about numbers dead, condemnation of Iran because they'd overthrown the Shah. But it's the first and longest hot war in a region that now looks like it's entered perpetual war. The book is a very disturbing eye-witness report of atrocities, torture, cruelty, stinky dead things, kindness, generosity, friendship, wounds, death, grief and love. Each man's story is told in alternate chapters along the war's timeline. Zahed saves Najah's life and after the war is over they accidentally run into each other. If it weren't true, it would be preposterous fiction.
March 30, 2019
Among the best books I have ever read. I, Who Did Not Die tells the stories of two different men who fought in the Iran-Iraq war, from the two opposing sides. Their stories are equally heartbreaking, and ultimately both as inspiring. Both were POWs wounded in battle captured by the other side. Both met each other as soldiers on the battlefield when one saved the life of the other rather than kill him. And both met again later as refugees, to become lifelong friends.
Almost everything I know about the Iran-Iraq war I learned through this book, though I obviously have more to learn. The stories of these two men illuminates much in the way of age old political and religious conflicts, and also removes a lot of the myths one may believe as to personal motives for fighting. It humanizes the men on both side of the war, while giving great depth as to the dehumanization of war.
Almost everything I know about the Iran-Iraq war I learned through this book, though I obviously have more to learn. The stories of these two men illuminates much in the way of age old political and religious conflicts, and also removes a lot of the myths one may believe as to personal motives for fighting. It humanizes the men on both side of the war, while giving great depth as to the dehumanization of war.
May 17, 2019
An incredibly powerful story.
It's all too easy to overlook the fact that both sides of a war are made up of individuals, not a coherent, cohesive mass of soldiers with the same motivation for participating.
Many are conscripted with no religious ideology forming their decision making and attitudes. Such it was with these two young men on opposing sides of the Iran-Iraq war.
An extraordinary, at times quite harrowing tale, but eventually quite uplifting, of their involvement in the war and the path their lives took as a result.
I was riveted from first page to last. An incredibly thought provoking story of two amazing men. It's one that will linger in one's thoughts long after the book is closed.
It's all too easy to overlook the fact that both sides of a war are made up of individuals, not a coherent, cohesive mass of soldiers with the same motivation for participating.
Many are conscripted with no religious ideology forming their decision making and attitudes. Such it was with these two young men on opposing sides of the Iran-Iraq war.
An extraordinary, at times quite harrowing tale, but eventually quite uplifting, of their involvement in the war and the path their lives took as a result.
I was riveted from first page to last. An incredibly thought provoking story of two amazing men. It's one that will linger in one's thoughts long after the book is closed.
February 14, 2018
It is a book about life and death, about how our choices influence our path and the path of others. It describes the horrific cruelties which are happening in wars, and how to survive and be happy even after life has taken all from you, but mainly, it is about what it means to be human, kind and compassionate. It is an enjoyable book, and the fact that this is a story of two real men, makes it more captivating and interesting.
November 20, 2020
Two boys, fighting on each side of the Iran/Iraq war in the 1980s tell their story. Instead of killing an enemy soldier, a young soldier saves him, makes sure he gets medical treatment at the hospital and never knows what happens to him. We hear each of their stories in alternating chapters and it is truly unbelievable what so many endured under Ayatollah Khomeini and Saddam Hussein.
I was blown away at the things I learned reading this book.
I was blown away at the things I learned reading this book.
November 16, 2017
I read the hardcover, but this is the only choice that came up when I wanted review it.
The story of two soldiers, one Iraqi and one Iranian, whose paths crossed during the Iran-Iraq war. Well written page turner. Good coverage of the politics from an average soldier's perspective. And the ending is incredible. And it's a true story.
The story of two soldiers, one Iraqi and one Iranian, whose paths crossed during the Iran-Iraq war. Well written page turner. Good coverage of the politics from an average soldier's perspective. And the ending is incredible. And it's a true story.
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