The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq - Paperback

by Rory Stewart (Author)

In August 2003, at the age of thirty, Rory Stewart took a taxi from Jordan to Baghdad. A Farsi-speaking British diplomat who had recently completed an epic walk from Turkey to Bangladesh, he was soon appointed deputy governor of Amarah and then Nasiriyah, provinces in the remote, impoverished marsh regions of southern Iraq. He spent the next eleven months negotiating hostage releases, holding elections, and splicing together some semblance of an infrastructure for a population of millions teetering on the brink of civil war.

The Prince of the Marshes tells the story of Stewart's year. As a participant he takes us inside the occupation and beyond the Green Zone, introducing us to a colorful cast of Iraqis and revealing the complexity and fragility of a society we struggle to understand. By turns funny and harrowing, moving and incisive, it amounts to a unique portrait of heroism and the tragedy that intervention inevitably courts in the modern age.

Front Jacket

In August 2003, at the age of thirty, Rory Stewart took a taxi from Jordan to Baghdad. A Farsi-speaking British diplomat who had recently completed an epic walk from Turkey to Bangladesh, he was soon appointed deputy governor of Amarah and then Nasiriyah, provinces in the remote, impoverished marsh regions of southern Iraq. He spent the next eleven months negotiating hostage releases, holding elections, and splicing together some semblance of an infrastructure for a population of millions teetering on the brink of civil war.
The Prince of the Marshes tells the story of Stewart s year. As a participant he takes us inside the occupation and beyond the Green Zone, introducing us to a colorful cast of Iraqis and revealing the complexity and fragility of a society we struggle to understand. By turns funny and harrowing, moving and incisive, it amounts to a unique portrait of heroism and the tragedy that intervention inevitably courts in the modern age.
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Back Jacket

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE PRINCE OF THE MARSHES

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"Prince of the Marshes perfectly captures the topsy-turvy of post-invasion Iraq. It is a funny, humane, brilliantly observed, beautifully written narrative that should set the standard for a new generation of colonial literature." William Langewiesche, author of The Outlaw Sea and American Ground

"Rory Stewart s book is a wonderful piece of work. It made me laugh, it made me sad, and it made me angry. Stewart takes to the task of governance and the task of writing about it with delight in action--engaging with, fighting with, trying to work with, trying to be the man that he is among that which is normally painted as The Other. This balance of poetic and contemplative, tragic and comic, strikes gut and brain at once." James Meek, author of The People s Act of Love

"No one understands the tragedy of the occupation of Iraq better than Rory Stewart. He was there, and he writes about his experiences as an administrator in southern Iraq with humor, verve and deep insight." Michael Ignatieff
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