• Longlisted for the 2006 BBC4 Samuel Johnson Prize
• Shortlisted for 2006 Freedom of Expression Award
• Lettre Ulysses Prize for Reportage 3rd prize winner

FOR SALE - IRAQ: A fertile, wealthy country with a population of around 25 million... plus around 150.000 foreign troops and a handful of puppets. Condition of sale: Please contact one of the members of the Governing Council in Baghdad, Iraq, for more information.

With humour and acerbity, a 25-year-old Iraqi woman, using the pseudonym Riverbend, posts her thoughts on her ongoing blog, describing the day-to-day realities of life in post-war Iraq. Riverbend lives in Baghdad, where, before the war, led a normal life. She studied at the University of Baghdad and used to work in a large database/software company. Her decision to start her online journal offers us lessons about the problems of everyday life in her country, which involves regular power-cuts, bombings, kidnappings and night time raids by US soldiers, oppression for women and fear every time an outing from the "security" of the house has to be organised.

The popular and rewarded journal of Riverbend gives a human face to war and occupation taking away the reader's breath. She sketches out the daily routine in her troubled country. Her journal entries include the release of the torture pictures of the Abu Ghraib prison, Bush's speeches, as well as a critical analysis of key players during the war and its aftermath. "Baghdad burning" is a highly personal narrative on life under the US occupation.

Badgad Burning is written in English and is already translated in Spanish, Japanese and now, Greek. On March 2005 it was presented as a dramatic production at the West End Theatre in New York. Riverbend continues to update her journal, found at http://riverbend.blogspot.com. She prefers to remain anonymous.

Translator: Evgenia Kypriotaki
Publisher: N. & S. Batsioulas
ISBN: 960-89288-1-8	Pages: 330
Publ. date: November/2006	Cover: Soft
Size: 14x21