A Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal [Anglais] [Relié]

The author of The Bookseller of Kabul, Norwegian journalist Seierstad spent 101 days in Baghdad before, during and after the initial coalition attacks in March 2003. She calls the articles she sent back to Europe "glimpses from the war," and weaves them into a brisk, present-tense narrative. The initial battles are with her official minders, always eager to steer her to sanctioned sites. With child psychologists, she sneaks out to explore the muddled terror and fantasy in Iraqi kids. A Finnish "human shield" professes no opinion of Saddam. A missile that hit a market renders scenes of blood and torment "too gruesome to publish." Every American soldier the author meets mentions 9/11, but there is no one Iraqi voice—she finds men joyful and resentful as they watch the fall of Saddam's statue, and finally able to report atrocities they witnessed. One constant is Aliya, Seierstad's interpreter, a loyal regime supporter who heroically shows up during the attacks, works mechanically after liberation to translate regime opponents' words and finally comes to some understanding of her country's past. While more ambitious narratives may provide more context, this is a valuable impressionistic portrait; it may lack the concentrated intimacy of The Bookseller of Kabul, but should backlist well as part of the tapestry of Iraq coverage. Agent, Diane Spivey.7-city author tour.(Apr. 11)
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Adult/High School-Seierstad writes about her stay as a reporter for Scandinavian, Dutch, and German media in Baghdad in the days before the war in Iraq through the fall of Baghdad. She describes her day-to-day efforts to try to report on the lives and thoughts of the people of Iraq while handicapped by the corrupt and powerful press-center employees, and constantly chaperoned by an interpreter and minder with whom she will have to "fawn, lie, and conceal." By being patient and skillful, she wades through the endless Bath party propaganda and reaches into the hearts and souls of the people: the 11-year-old who dreams about bombs falling on her family, the disgruntled restaurant worker who tells her that the walls have ears, and the people who try to care for their loved ones hurt in the bombing. She fearfully hunkers down in her hotel as the bombs fall, but then bravely slips out to watch a soccer game played in defiance of the bombing, to listen to press conferences announcing the successful exploits of the Iraqi army, and to watch the mayhem in the streets in the aftermath of the attacks. Seierstad puts a human face to and provides insight into the mosaic of the people of Iraq, the Bath party supporters, the dissidents, and the average person caught in the nightmare of the Saddam regime and the horrors of war.-Jane S. Drabkin, Chinn Park Regional Library, Woodbridge, VA
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Seierstad, a Norwegian who earned her stripes as a correspondent in Grozny and Kabul, went to Iraq two months before the bombs came. Her memoir touches all the familiar topics of prewar Iraq reporting: Baghdad's poverty; the ubiquity of Saddam icons; Iraqis' reluctance to confide their dislike of his regime; and, most prominently, the regime's stifling control over visiting reporters. Her hundred and one days in Baghdad, however, come to an end even before the premature declaration that combat is over, and she can only hint at the intractable conflict that has engulfed Iraq in the two years since then. These dispatches, described as "snapshots," are human-interest pieces, focussing on the anxieties of ordinary Iraqis rather than on the geopolitical upheaval outside her hotel window. Seierstad's depictions of quotidian suffering are affecting, if sometimes saccharine, as the tyranny of Saddam gives way to the lawless chaos of the American invasion.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

Josephine Bailey masterfully presents a reporter's view of life in Baghdad during the first months of 2003. The voice she gives to the author is precisely what one would imagine her to sound like, and her other characterizations are also well done. Author Åsne Seierstad, a journalist based in Norway, reports for various Scandinavian, German, and Dutch media. She is the author of the widely acclaimed BOOKSELLER OF KABUL, about the war in Afghanistan. Presenting voices of Iraqis of all ages and a host of foreign nationals, Bailey delivers a vivid portrait of life in a war zone. M.L.C. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition CD .

*Starred Review* In January 2003 freelance journalist Seierstad traveled to Iraq, hoping to get the Iraqi perspective on the possibility of a war with America. She constantly battled red tape and interpreters reluctant to take her to places where she might get more controversial opinions. She encounters Saddam Hussein everywhere she turns--his portraits and statues cover the buildings and the landscape, and his name is on the tip of most people's tongues. But Seierstad also finds people willing to whisper to her about their longing for freedom and the fear they live with everyday. There's no consensus about the pending war as it becomes clear that war is indeed imminent--even those who long for liberation view an American incursion as a necessary evil that cannot be trusted. In the days just before the war, Seierstad's visa runs out, and she is sent to nearby Jordan, where she tries desperately to get back in. When she does, she finds journalists, human shields, and Iraqis fleeing and wonders if covering the war is worth risking her life. Seierstad, author of The Bookseller of Kabul (2003), imbues her narrative with a true sense of immediacy, particularly in the days leading up to the war. Her multifaceted chronicle is required reading for anyone who truly wants to delve into the complexities of life in Iraq under Saddam and during the war and its aftermath. Kristine Huntley
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The New York Times best-selling author of The Bookseller of Kabul paints a stunning and intimate portrait of Baghdad under siege

From January until April 2003-for one hundred and one days-Asne Seierstad worked as a reporter in Bagdad for Scandinavian, German, and Dutch media. Through her articles and live television coverage she reported on the events in Iraq before, during, and after the attacks by the American and British forces.

But Seierstad was after a story far less obvious than the military invasion. From the moment she arrived in Baghdad Seierstad was determined to understand the modern secrets of an ancient place and to find out how the Iraqi people really live.

In A Hundred and One Days, she introduces us to daily life under the constant threat of attack-first from the Iraqi government and later from American bombs. Moving from the deafening silence of life under Hussein to the explosions that destroyed the power supply, the water supply, and security, Seierstad sets out to discover: What happens to people when the dam bursts? What do they choose to say when they can suddenly say what they like? What do they miss most when their world changes overnight?

Displaying the novelist's eye and lyrical storytelling that have won her awards around the world, Seierstad here brings to life an unforgettable cast of characters to tell the stories we never see on the evening news. The only woman in the world to cover both the fall of Kabul in 2001 and the bombings of Baghdad in 2003, Asne Seierstad has redefined war reporting with her mesmerizing book.

Asne Seierstadhas reported from such war-torn regions as Chechnya, China, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. She has received numerous awards for her journalism. Her first book, The Bookseller of Kabul is an international bestseller and has been translated into twenty-six languages. Seierstad makes her home in Norway and travels frequently to the United States.