A Hundred and One Days *Update*

Asne Seierstad is a Norwegian freelance journalist and writer who is the author of two of my favourite books. Over the past few days I have been reading ‘A Hundred and One Days : A Baghdad Journal‘; the time spent in bed over the last couple of days have helped me finish reading  atleast one book already this year.

A hundred and one days is a book written on Seierstad’s accounts of the second Iraq war. The book is based on periods before, during and after the war, and demonstrates in great amounts of detail the moods and behaviours of the average person around a major conflict or war. The book also takes in account the behaviour of government ministries and officials in the run-up to war; it is amazing to read about how the population is misled by officials and media and are led to believe that Iraq is winning the war, up to the moment the tanks rolled into Paradise Square, and eventually pulled the statue of Saddam Hussain down.

The book accounts for losses of innocent people, losses of International media and reporters – especially Reuters, who suffered fatalities in the Hotel Palestine. More importantly, the book accounts for the fear, psychological damage, and loss of hope of the people during and after the war. The graphical explanation of war is very very saddening, and fits in well with the current conflict in Gaza, Palestine.

Asne Seierstad is one of my favourite writers. She is a young, and experienced journalist and has covered conflicts in Serbia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and Grozny in Chechnya. Her style of writing is what impresses me; one would expect a very dynamic and explosive style from a young author writing about major conflicts, but on the contrary her style is introversive, and very very calm and easy to read.

Iraq is at a stage at the moment where most of us have heard in the media of what has happened since 2003. A Hundred and One Days is an excellent book to read in the current climate, to try and understand what really happened in Iraq during the second war, and I guess try and understand from her accounts how the people of Gaza are being affected at this present moment in time.

I would strongly recommend this book to everyone, and if you have an opportunity, have a read of ‘With Their Backs to The World : Portraits of Serbia‘ and ‘The Bookseller of Kabul‘. I will at some point during the year also read her fourth book ‘Angel of Grozny : Inside Chechnya‘.

*Update*

Here is an interesting post which I read recently; it kinda skims the surface of the message that this book is trying to deliver.

Tagged as: Arts, Åsne Seierstad, Bookseller of Kabul, Gaza, history, Iraq, Iraq War, islam, Kosovo, Me, middle east, Palestine, Saddam Hussein, The Angel of Grozny: Orphans of a Forgotten War, Twentieth Century, UK, United Kingdom, United States, Warfare and Conflict