Summary

Born to an Iraqi-Christian father and a British mother, and raised in Britain and Canada, Leilah Nadir has never set foot on Iraqi soil. Distanced from her Iraqi roots through immigration and now cut off by war, the closest link she has to the nation is through her father, who left Baghdad in the 1960s to pursue his studies in England. His Iraq is of mythical origins; his beginnings are in a garden at the family home that now vacant.

Through her father's memories, Leilah recounts her family's lost story, from Iraq at the turn of the twentieth century during the British occupation, to the Iraq-Iran War and the Gulf War. Through her cousins still living in Baghdad, she experiences the thunderous explosions of the present-day conflict. Then Leilah's friend, award-winning photographer Farah Nosh, brings home news of Leilah's family after her visits to Iraq, as well as stunning photos of civilians and their tragic stories.

The Orange Trees of Baghdad is at once harrowing, touching and painfully human. It is an unforgettable debut.