The Sirens of Baghdad is the story of one young man’s descent into hell—his journey from innocence to despair, from a peaceful life in a sleepy village to a rage for vengeance in the most violent city in the world. The narrator of the novel is a college student whose studies have been interrupted by the American invasion of Iraq. He has had to return to his desert village, where boredom, scorching heat, and the occasional boiling over of tempers when the war is being discussed are the most serious problems he must face. The war is a distant phenomenon, something they hear about but doesn’t really touch them. That all changes when Sulayman, the local blacksmith’s sweet-natured, mentally challenged son, accidentally severs two fingers and must be taken to the hospital. When their car is stopped at a checkpoint, Sulayman panics, tries to run away, and is riddled with bullets. “Every bullet that struck the fugitive,” the narrator says, “pierced me through and through” [p 57]. But this is only the first of the humiliations and tragedies he must witness. When soldiers come to search the village for suspected insurgents, the narrator watches as his aged father is pulled naked from his bed and thrown to the floor. The disgrace of this moment engender in him a need to wash away in blood the humiliation his father has suffered. This is the turning point that sends him down a path to terrorism and destruction.
