Customer Reviews

Love in a Torn Land: Joanna of Kurdistan: The True Story of a Freedom Fighter's Escape from Iraqi Vengeance

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I love all of Jean Sasson's books. Like all the others, this is written to keep you interested in the story and wondering what could possibly happen next to this poor young woman, her husband and all Kurds, even though you eventually know about the general outcome. The fact that the story is true, makes it hair raising. The only unfavorable thing I could say about the book, is that in telling the story, Jean Sasson looses herself a bit by going into too many details of places, people, every day occurrances, and the constant back and forth conversations between the protagonists. Sometimes it is best to leave details to your imagination. Other than that, I enjoyed it thoroughly and can't wait for the next!

It is hard to believe that this story is non-fiction given the never-ending twists and turns, intense drama and the perfect love story that unfolds. It was hard to put this book down!

This is Jean Sassoon's best book to date. There is far less of the distracting shifting back and forth that I found to be a problem in the construction of her earlier books. Her descriptions are richer, more vivid. I used to live in Kurdistan, and her descriptions are very true to life!

I think this book does more to advance the Kurdish cause than any documentary I have seen! The harsh life under both the Baathists and the Iranian government is fairly portrayed. You will come away impressed with the strength of the Peshmergas and very grateful for your own soft bed and other creature comforts.

I do wish that the author had not been in such a rush to move the characters from Iran to London. I would have loved to have read more about Joanna's trials and tribulations in the Kurdish area of Iran and in Damascus. The adjustment to living in London would also have made for interesting reading.

In Jean Sasson's book, "Love in a Torn Land", you will meet an astonishing heroine of an unbelievable adventure novel as well as hear a tender romance that survives against all odds. This is Jean Sasson at her best!

Before I read this book, I did not even know what a Kurd was, but you will come to admire the spirit of the Kurdish people and their struggle to survive in the current day through war, suppression, genocide and their unfathomable faith in their right to survive. This is a truly harsh environment as the people struggle day by day to survive.

Follow the story of a family's struggles in war torn Iraq as our heroine, Joanna, carries us through stories of oppression of Muslim women, heart breaking tales of torture and loss, warm sharings of people reaching out to comfort when none seems to be had, harrowing narratives of a people's struggle to survive. Against all odds, this brave woman survives and lives to tell the tale of how she was determined to live the life she wanted no matter the cost.

As you cower under your covers, you will read of the bombings of Baghdad and the Northern Iraq mountains where learning "that whatever one might be doing here, half the mind will not be focusing on the task at hand, but instead on the sounds and sights from the skies" is a crucial lesson. Joanna applies this lesson as her ears are tuned for the shrill whistling resonance of shells, or for the noisy roar of an airplane or helicopter engine while she is preparing a meager breakfast that may only consist of rice. Our heroine suffered through narrow escapes in treacherous places only to place herself in an area targeted for race eliminating scourges. She suffers the heartbreak of the loss of loved ones, is often on the brink of starvation, poisoned and blinded by gas - but almost never loses her spirit and will to survive. Just imagine thinking you are in heaven to have a shelter over your head that is crawling with scorpions, `despite the fact that there was no electricity, no running water, and no toilets".

This eye opening book just may have you clamouring for more of Jean Sasson's books as she supports the efforts of women whose voices must be heard.

I briefly had an understanding of where Kurdistan was. That the "Kurds" were yet another minority being persecuted in our world. "Love in a Torn Land" has somewhat educated me as to their history and current situation. In a most entertaining manner. I salute both the author and the heroine. Thank you for letting me into the Kurdistan situation. Why can't we not only just not get along but need to bomb and chemically bomb a nation out of existance? The thing is, it is happening right now in Kurdistan and "most" other parts of our earth. I lie here in my comfortable bed wishing I could help. THANK YOU again.
peter

My husband is a victim of the same type of horrors as this main character. He was a Kurd living in Iraq at the same time and his village also was gassed...he lost his parents and older brother and had to flee to Turkey in 88 with the rest of his siblings and extended family. So I had heard of horrors of what Saddam's regime had imposed on the Kurdish people.
However this story does a great job of telling yet another vantage point of this. And I especially enjoyed hearing it from the voice of a female. One who has trememdnous courage and fights for what she believes in.
Even if you weren't personally connected to this story as I was, I highly recommend you to read it and the author weaves the tale of this girl and her journey so well that it is a story although hard at times to read (some of the horrors made me stop cause I couldn't bare it and would have to come back to it) is one you glad you took the time to know. And God-willing all of us can do something to prevent such regimes from doing the same to other people.

A touching love story set primarily during the war of freedom for the Kurds in the hills of Northern Iraq. Joanna grows up in Baghdad a life of ease yet still includes fear of bombs, night time raids, smuggling a brother out of the country, imprisoned family members, and interrogations. All this was not enough to prepare Joanna for life as a 'peshmerga,' a freedom fighter, living in the mountainside of Northern Iraq fighting to ensure the freedom of the Kurdish people. There she would endure hardships few will ever know. Sasson once again tells a story of brave triumphs in the turbulent Middle East. Joanna's story is told in a beautiful and haunting voice; Sasson does not disappoint. Once again she writes her books from an assumed first person point of view as if the experience and life were her own. Be prepared to laugh and cry; a box of tissues is essential- enjoy.

I'm ashamed to admit that I knew very little about the Kurdish people before I read this book. But as someone who loves reading about different cultures (especially throughout the Middle East) I was very eager to learn as much as possible and this book provided an abridged history lesson while also being extraordinarily entertaining at the same time. As usual, congruent to Jean's other books, her latest master-piece, "Love in a Torn Land" was immensely descriptive, detailed and so fascinating. I also liked this book very much because it is probably Jean's most unique book (besides "Esther's Child" which was a fictional story) because it was in part a love story. I learned a lot about Kurdish culture and the diverse regions that Joanna (the main subject of the story; the book was written in "first person") traveled through. There was a lot of tragedy and despair in this book as the authoress details the harrowing war that was being fraught. But there was also a lot of hope. I think what I learned the most from this book is that even in the worst of times and the most tragic of events we can find some solace, however small, if only we have love in our lives. "Love in a Torn Land" is a testament to Joanna's character and drive and perseverance. I hope Jean will collaborate with her in the future on another book.

This is the story of Joanna Al Askari, Joanna of Kurdistan, and her life as a part persecuted nation in Iraqi occupied Kurdistan.

Through her own fascinating story she recounts the Arab hatred of the beautiful and cultured Kurdish people.
How her uncle was arrested and tortured, so that he never regained his mental functionality again, simply for being a Kurd.

She recounts some of the atrocities that Saddam Hussein committed against the Kurds during her lifetime. Whole villages were destroyed, wells were poisoned, women and children burned alive.
At Abu Ghraib thousands of Kurds and Shiites were tortured and died under Saddam's tyranny, and yet the world was silent. Only when Saddam's own henchmen were imprisoned there was there an outcry.

Joanna tells of her family's ascent into poverty when ruthless Baathists and Communists seized power in Iraq in 1958 and massacred the royal family.
Her father's furniture factory was destroyed and Joanna was born into poverty into 1962 but still tells the beautiful stories of her childhood, before the Kurdish holocaust was begun by the Baathists.

The main account is of her life as the wife of a Kurdish resistance fighter (peshmerga) during Saddam's holocaust of 200 000 Kurds during 1987/88 by poison gas, and the special role played by chemical warfare mastermind Ali Hassan Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (Chemical Ali)
And this was completely ignored by the world, by the United Nations, the world media, so-called human rights groups, the universities.
While the world was condemning Israel for combating Arab aggression, the Arab Holocaust against the Kurds was condoned by the same moral hypocrites by their silence.
Joanna tells of living as a destitute refugee, being blinded by poison gas, and seeing the deaths of thousands of Kurds by this hideous biological warfare.
Her story is an exciting personal account, but also tells the story of a people subjected to genocide and persecution of the worst kind, which the world continually ignores.
Where were all the people who hysterically ranted about the US invasion of Iraq, when the Kurds were being subjected to a Holocaust?
Did they care?
Do they only care about human rights when they can use it as a stick to beat Israel and her allies?
Will President Barack Obama make the world even more indifferent to the plight of minorities in the Middle East, people other than Arab Muslims.

I have read Jean Sasson's impressive profile, and even though I haven't read her other works, this book seemed more like another "project". The voice wasn't convincing enough, even though I did get better insight into Iraqi Kurdish life, especially life under Saddam Hussein in the eighties, and during the Iran-Iraq war.

Joanna is only half Kurdish, her father is an Iraqi Arab. How did she end up so involved in the Kurdish cause, especially in a patriarchal Islamic society, where the children often take the father's identity. Was it because her father was deaf? This is a question that wasn't addressed clearly. Her love for Sarbast, a Kurdish fighter, seems to have been the arterial supply to her love for the Kurdish cause- so perhaps the book was aptly titled.

Also lacking is a brief history of the Kurds. One of the arguments used against them is that they are not a true nation, even their dialects are unintelligible. Some argue that they are a mere remnant of the splinter of nations. I would have liked to see Jean delve a little more into geopolitical and cultural Kurdish history.

As usual, Jean Sasson opened my eyes to a harsh culture where survival is your minute by minute goal. She has provided women with a voice and others of us a reason to be thankful to be Americans.