Voyage to a Stricken Land: "Four Years on the Ground Reporting in Iraq: A Woman's Inside Story" [Hardcover]

Sara Daniel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 4, 2006

This revealing first-hand account written by the only foreign journalist invited into the inner sanctum of the insurgents' headquarters takes you behind the headlines of one of the world's most controversial conflicts into the deadly heart of Iraq. After four years of travel in Iraq beginning in June 2002, Sara Daniel presents an intimate, personal portrait of the war characterized by her interviews with people from all walks of life and all religious and political affiliations: from the Kurds in the north to the rising new politicians in Baghdad; from insurgents in Sadr City and Fallujah to the police chief in Basra; from hospital doctors tending the maimed to ordinary men and women on the streets. Daniel humanizes a war whose face we've known almost exclusively from hard statistics and body counts.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sara Daniel has been covering the Middle East for the past decade, most recently Afghanistan and Iraq. The mother of a seven-year-old girl, she lives with her family in Paris.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing (October 4, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559707852
• ISBN-13: 978-1559707855
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,355,072 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Voyage to a Stricken Land, October 19, 2006

By 

R. Elliott - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Voyage to a Stricken Land: "Four Years on the Ground Reporting in Iraq: A Woman's Inside Story" (Hardcover)

I intend to buy extra copies of Voyage to a Stricken Land for some of my civilian friends and family because I want them to have a better understanding of my downrange experiences.

I was interviewed for this book, and some of my soldiers are prominently featured in it. "Voyage" does not report the awards I received or how I single-handedly saved Iraqi civilization like so many other tiresome self-serving tomes about this latest chapter of the Gulf War.

While it contains personal thoughts, opinions, and expert analysis, I know that it reflects a time and place where I was. I believe it reports it in a fair and balanced manner.

As a 20 year army combat veteran who served in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom who met the author on OIF1, I am impressed with her ability to see what was really happening as it happened and accurately portray events she witnessed and experienced.

Besides my career as a soldier, sergeant, and then officer in the U.S. Army, I worked for years as a staffer in the United States Senate, for various state and local governments, and for independent media as a newspaper reporter. I have read many articles and books about battles, meetings, legislative processes, ambushes, and other events in which I was personally involved but was not able to recognize from the report of the event. Even if I am uncomfortable by how something is covered, I appreciate being able to recognize a situation as the one I remember.

In the parts of this book where I have personal knowledge of the events, missions, campaigns, and situations, I have not found a single episode which makes me wonder what Iraq this reporter was covering.

This is refreshing when I consistently see other TV, newspaper, magazine, and book coverage of these events which is merely a political statement either for or against my country (United States), my govenment (currently the Bush Administration), my army (The US Army), or a particular person's agenda or company's interest.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars voyage to hell, October 19, 2006

By 

Rita Barros "rb" (new york) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Voyage to a Stricken Land: "Four Years on the Ground Reporting in Iraq: A Woman's Inside Story" (Hardcover)

Sara Daniel's reportage on the Iraq war through the voices
of the soldiers that fought and were wounded physically and mentally is a must to understand the botched policy of the Iraq war.

Bravo for her courage .and talent in sharing with us such unbelievable moments.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for anyone curious about life in Iraq in the last 4 years, November 1, 2006

By 

Jennifer Callahan (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Voyage to a Stricken Land: "Four Years on the Ground Reporting in Iraq: A Woman's Inside Story" (Hardcover)

I love this book. Sara Daniel has gone everywhere in Iraq in the last four years. With a sharp, humane, and inquisitive mind, she's interviewed everyone - be they fighting in the war, involved in the riots, fighting for the insurgency, fighting with the Americans. Her dispatches introduce the reader to American soldiers, to insurgents, to former Baathist-party intellectuals, to fellow foreign correspondents, to Kurds, to life in Baghdad, Fallujah, Mosul, and other places in Iraq. I have a sense of the personalities, the tragic mistakes, the horror, and some of the details that make up life in Iraq. She includes her feelings at different moments, such as her fright in interviewing an assassin, and her friendship with her driver, Mohammed. The inclusion of her feelings makes her war-reporting more vivid. She names mania and egotism for what they are, whenever she sees it, on whatever side the person might fall. She gets the big picture and also includes numerous, memorable details. I also liked getting a sense of how it is just to work there, the life on the road and in hotels, and life as a western woman who does not mind wearing a chador. It is amazing, to say the least, that she was not hurt or killed. Full disclosure: Sara is a friend of mine, but I would not write so glowingly of a friend's book if I did not believe what I was writing.