The Baghdad Clock

The Baghdad Clock is the debut novel of Shahad Al Rawi. It was published in Arabic in 2016 and is a bestseller in Iraq, Dubai and the UAE.  It was published on May 8, 2018 in North America. I received an advanced review copy of the manuscript through the Early Reviewer's Program at Librarything.

The story opens in 1991 during the Gulf War when a young Iraqi girl meets a new friend, Nadia, at an air raid shelter. They become inseparable.  As the city begins to fall and economic sanctions hit their neighbors hard, the girls continue to share their lives with after school play time, parties, first boyfriends and their private thoughts. The main character, who is nameless, has the ability to read Nadia's dreams.  This bit of fantasy is a major part of the book.

Following this story was awkward. Either the writing or the translation was off.  The constant going back and forth to the main character's thoughts and plot action was off-putting.  It made me bored. I just wanted to finish the book as soon as possible.  I kept going back a few pages thinking that I missed action but never did.  The problem was that the main character's thoughts had stopped and plot action had begun again. I also kept looking for the main character's name.  I thought that I missed it and it frustrated me.  It's odd that every neighbor had a name, as well as all of Nadia's family members, but not the main character.

I believe this novel could be the poignant coming of age novel that every reviewer I have read says that it is. The plot itself is poignant.  There were too many problems with the writing or with the translation.  The fact that this book is a bestseller in Islamic Middle Eastern countries may indicate it's a translation issue. However, if the focus was not a coming of a age story between 2 young girls but rather what happened to members of a particular neighborhood during a war, this book would have been more successful for me. This focus seems more appropriate given that the main character provides her thoughts about neighbors as they leave Iraq for a better life elsewhere.  One of the characters who leaves, Uncle Shawkat, has a book called The Baghdad Clock:  The Record of a Neighborhood.

Another odd issue with the book is shown on the copyright page.  It states that Shahad Al Rawi has the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.  Huh??  The moral right? Then it says "Every reasonable effort has been made to trace the copyright holders of material reproduced in this book, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers would be glad to hear from them."  There was no writing within the book's pages attributed to anyone in particular.  The reader has to assume it all was written by Shahad Al Rawi.  Hmm.

I am a lone reviewer who did not like the book.  I cannot recommend it.

White Chrysanthemum

White Chrysanthemum is the debut novel of Irish writer Mary Lynn Bracht. It takes place in Korea in the early 1940s when Japan occupied Korea.  The Japanese soldiers routinely picked up young Korean girls and put them into the prostitution trade.  They were known as comfort girls.

Sixteen year old Hana has become a haenyeon like her mother and dives for fish in the sea to sell for a living.  Her younger sister plays on the beach while they work together. One day in 1943 a Japanese soldier wanders over to the beach on Jeju Island where they live and work. Hana sees him when she momentarily comes up for air and races under the water to reach her sister before the soldier notices her. 

Hana and her sister hide under the rocks but the soldier has noticed someone is there and calls out for them. Hana knows from her mother that she cannot be alone with a Japanese soldier because something bad will happen to her but she is also her sister's protector.  Hana comes out from behind the rock and is taken away.  Her father leaves home for a month to look for her but returns home alone. The family holds a forbidden ceremony to memorialize her death.  The ceremony ends with the dropping of a white chrysanthemum flower over the edge of the coastline of their village.

In the present time 77 year old Emi is overcoming a fear of flying in order to fly from Jeju Island where she has lived her entire life to Seoul where her children live. Emi plans to attend a Wednesday Demonstration as she always does during her annual visits. Her children do not understand why she feels driven to attend these events but support her anyway.

During the Wednesday Demonstration this year Emi finds out that a sculpture will be unveiled to memorialize the women who were captured and/or killed by the Japanese during their occupation of Korea. The organizers of the demonstrations want the Japan government to admit their wrongdoing. On the day of the unveiling 2 women are speaking. Emi moves closer to them and to the sculpture to see if she recognizes anyone. As she gazes upon the sculpture, Emi has a heart attack.

The chapters alternate between 1943 and the present day telling both the story of Hana and the story of Emi. As their stories unfold the reader gets the whole picture of what happened to Hana and her family as a result of her abduction. I was moved to tears by their experience. What both women became as a result of the abduction was gut-wrenching. 

The novel was written with suspense.  Each chapter ending had a surprise or an emotional dagger that kept me reading. In fact, I read this book in one sitting.  It kept me up past midnight! The 2 female characters were quite sympathetic, especially Hana as her story was told in painful detail. As a woman, it is impossible not to understand what she was feeling. With Emi, you knew she was trying to be brave but you did not know why. The writing concerning her emotions was done well.

The topic was interesting for a first time author who is not Korean.  I wonder why she chose this point in World War II history to write about. Regardless, she did justice to the women who were victims of the Japanese government with this story.

Highly recommended!

The First Family

The First Family was written by Daniel Palmer but he used his famous father's name on the front cover too.  Michael Palmer wrote 21 medical mysteries before his death 5 years ago.  The First Family is a medical mystery.

The front cover book summary:
"The White House is not an easy place to grow up, so when the president's son Cam Hilliard, a sixteen-year-old chess champion, experienced fatigue, moodiness, and an uncharacteristic violent outburst, doctors are quick to dismiss his troubles as teen angst.  But Secret Service agent Karen Ray, whose job it is to guard the president's family with her life, is convinced Cam's issues are serious-serious enough for her to summon her physician ex-husband for a second opinion.

Dr. Lee Blackwell's concerns are dismissed by the president's team-until Cam gets sicker.  Lee must make a diagnosis from a puzzling array of symptoms he's never seen before.  His only clue is a patient named Susie Banks, a young musical prodigy who seems to be suffering from the same baffling condition as Cam. Hospitalized after an attempt on her live by a determined killer, Susie faces increased jeopardy as Cam's condition takes on a terrifying new dinension.

Is someone trying to kill the president's son?

As Lee and Karen raced for a cure to Cam's mysterious and deadly disease, they begin to uncover betrayals that breach the highest levels of national security.

Returning to the same Washington, D.C., setting of The First Patient, which former president Bill Clinton said "captured the intense atmosphere of the White House," The First Family is a riveting new medical drama from acclaimed novelist Daniel Palmer, in the tradition of his late father, New York Times bestselling novelist Michael Palmer."

First, let me say that Daniel Palmer has all of the talent his father had. He published several suspense novels before this one and I would categorize The First Family as a medical thriller, not a medical mystery.  He used the thriller formula. Since the medical mystery is my favorite mystery sub-genre, I hope this author continues to write them.  There are not many authors who write them but there are many who write suspense, albeit not at the high level he was writing at.

I read this book in one sitting.  It was that gripping. The characters were sympathetic even though they were the first family and I am sick of reading about current events in today's political climate. That was quite an achievement in itself. The first family was portrayed as any family would be with a teenager. This author used the emotional bonds of the family but the setting of the White House did advance the plot significantly. 

One of the main plot thrusts not mentioned in the blurb is that the 2, really 4, kids affected with the condition all attended a private institution after school that helped them achieve prodigy status in their chosen interest.  The TPI dispensed non-FDA regulated supplements to its students to help them achieve greatness. The CEO of TPI is a strange man and he makes a great villain but he is not the only one, of course.

The First Family is an action packed thriller with medical and legal issues about pushing kids to high performance.  I highly recommend it!