The Poet of Baghdad

In the winter of 1979 Nabeel Yasin Iraq''s most famous young poet gathered together a handful of belongings and fled Iraq with his wife and son. Life in Baghdad had become intolerable. Silenced by a series of brutal beatings at the hands of the Ba''ath Party''s Secret Police and declared an enemy of the state he faced certain death if he stayed. . Nabeel had grown up in the late 1950s and early ''60s in a large and loving family amid the domestic drama typical of Iraq''s new middle class with his mother Sabria working as a seamstress to send all of her seven children to college. As his story unfolds Nabeel meets his future wife and finds his poetic voice while he is a student. But Saddam''s rise to power ushers in a new era of repression imprisonment and betrayal from which few families will escape intact. In this new climate of intimidation and random violence Iraqis live in fear and silence; yet Nabeels mother tells him It is your duty to write. His poetry a blend of myth and history attacks the regime determined to silence him. As Nabeels fame and influence as a poet grows he is forced into hiding when the Party begins to dismantle the citys infrastructure and impose power cuts and food rationing. Two of his brothers are already in prison and a third is used as a human minesweeper on the frontline of the Iran-Iraq war. After six months in hiding Nabeel escapes with his wife and young son to Beirut Paris Prague Budapest and finally England.. Written by Jo Tatchell a journalist who has spent many years in the Middle East and who is a close friend of Nabeel Yasins Nabeel''s Song is the gripping story of a family and its fateful encounter with history. From a warm lighthearted look at the Yasin family before the Saddam dictatorship to the tale of Nabeels persecution and daring flight and the suspense-filled account of his familys rebellion against Saddam''s regime Nabeel''s Song is an intimate illuminating deeply human chronicle of a country and a culture devastated by political repression and war.