Veteran Middle East correspondent Amos examines a generally underreported consequence of the Iraq war: the exodus of several million Iraqis, predominantly Sunni Muslims, who have fled Iraq to escape civil strife and persecution at the hands of the newly dominant Shiite majority. Flooding into Little Baghdad communities in Damascus, Amman, and Beirut, the Iraqi exiles have strained Iraq’s relations with its neighbors and dramatically transformed the demographics of the entire region. Introducing us to several Iraqi exiles, among them a politically subversive actor who cannot go home, a young woman maimed because of her father’s work with the Americans, and a proud mother who has turned to the sex trade for survival, Amos emphasizes the human struggles and tragedies that have defined Sunni exile and the profound impact the exodus has had on the Sunni community. In doing so, she also probes the morass of conflicting Iraqi and U.S. policies that have caused or exacerbated the situation and reminds us that the success of a secular, modern Iraq depends upon the reversal of the exodus. --Brendan Driscoll
Review
George Packer, author of The Assassin’s Gate: America in Iraq and Interesting Times: Writings from a Turbulent Decade
"Deborah Amos stuck around to trace the fallout from the Iraq War after most other journalists had moved on. And she already had decades of experience in the region under her belt. This commitment to the story has allowed her to see the war in its true historical context: as a Middle Eastern earthquake that will forever change the power equation between Sunnis and Shia, and as a vast human tragedy. These are not abstractions in ‘Eclipse of the Sunnis’: Amos’ intelligence and heart as a reporter make the fate of Iraq’s millions of refugees unforgettably intimate.”
Bob Carey, vice president of Resettlement and Migration Policy at the International Rescue Committee; chair of Refugee Council USA
“A compelling book. Deborah Amos documents the collapse of a rich culture and society and violence behind the creation of a global diaspora. Amos movingly details the human toll of the war. She gives a face and a voice to the hundreds of thousands of refugees who are the forgotten collateral damage of the conflict.”
Bill Moyers
“Memo to President Obama: Take this book with you to Camp David for the weekend. Then insist your foreign policy and national security teams read it, and schedule a time to test them orally on their retention. The reporting here contains the seeds of our future in Iraq and the Middle East.”
Publishers Weekly
“Millions of Iraqis, mostly Sunnis, [have] fled the country, creating a refugee crisis that has only recently been acknowledged as such by the U.S. government…. Amos deftly examines the political and cultural consequences of the marginalization of the Sunnis while focusing on individual Iraqis who have fled to such countries as Syria and Lebanon in the wake of a new sectarian and tribal-based order in Iraq…. Amos’s breathtaking work implicates not only shortsighted American policy but the age-old schism between Sunni and Shia and the cagey maneuverings of such meddling neighbors as Syria. The weight and complexity of the Iraqi problem is on full display, with shreds of hope pushing through the layers like scrub in the desert.”
Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer
“A fascinating new book.”
Washington Post
“Poignant… Powerful…. Amos is a skillful writer and a perceptive analyst…. Eclipse of the Sunnis is persuasive and very well written.”
Brian Till, Atlantic.com
“Deb Amos, it turns out, is as eloquent on the page as she is on the airwaves as a foreign correspondent for National Public Radio. More than a poetic read, though, (Eclipse) is an innately human story about the toll of the war; it should be required reading for all of those weighing bombing campaigns and land assaults, and, indeed, for those pontificating in favor of them from Washington think tanks or London editorial rooms.”
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