High Tea in Mosul: The True Story of Two Englishwomen in Iraq

Journalist and foreign correspondent O'Donnell dexterously combines the tumultuous accounts of two Englishwomen living in Iraq with first-person narratives to create an impartial tale about life in Mosul, a mixed-religion city northwest of Baghdad. In the late 1970s, Pauline and Margaret, the British wives of an Iraqi heart specialist and future Mosul University president, respectively, assimilated into daily Middle Eastern life by learning to adapt to overbearing extended families, complying (or not) with secular rules and dejectedly tolerating meals of mutton. By degrees, over the next two decades, Saddam's iron hand tightened; Iran and Kuwait were invaded, while censorship, food rationing and international sanctions ensued. In 2003, Mosul crumbles, and the lives of these Englishwomen become attuned to air raids, bombs and the shudder of explosions. O'Donnell's emotional narrative examines Iraqi life in its entirety and shows that there is more to the country than violence and war. She chronicles friendship and family with stories about everyday life. A thorough look into Iraqi's past and present, O'Donnell's tale adds a human element to the developing history of a turbulent nation. (Aug.)