Anna Prouse, an Italian journalist, emergency medic, and born adventurer, gives us a view of today's Iraq not seen elsewhere. She writes of death and destruction, but also looks beyond the chaos to see Iraqis as the real people they are, and to find the Iraqi and foreign communities working together to bring forth a new nation. Her wit and compassion make her book an engaging and delightful experience. --Publisher's description.

This book, first published in 1937, is being re-issued now in response to recent events in the Middle East - events which have left many specialists trying to discern the region's future by looking to its past. The book explores the process by which Iraq was transformed from a 'remote' and neglected portion of the Ottoman Empire in 1914 to a political unit possessing all the machinery of a modern state. The growth of Arab nationalism in the region, the establishment of a provisional government and the search for a ruler all had to be attended to by the British in the mandated territory. Unmistakable modern-day parallels make this a fascinating book for Middle East scholars and followers of current events.

Once Upon a Time is creative non-fiction written in the form of a memoir which focuses on the fact that another Baghdad existed not too long ago when people of different nationalities and religions lived and worked together peacefully. The central point of the book is life in Baghdad during the 1940s and 1950s, a period remembered as the golden age of Iraq. The stories told are as seen through the eyes of a young girl and woman, the author, who was born and raised in a Christian multicultural middle class family in Baghdad of the time. The book spans the first twenty years of her life spent in the Middle East. Intertwined with her personal story, the author tells of the lives of others, family, relatives and friends, as she knew them in the Baghdad of her youth. Iraq was a nation of multicultural and diverse people of all backgrounds and beliefs, with a heritage that goes back thousand of years. Iraqis and non-Iraqis, Moslems and non-Moslems, Christians and Jews lived, worked and mingled together in harmony, each aware of their particular cultural boundaries and respectful of others. As the author narrates her personal story she reveals many insights into her life, customs and cultures of Christian and Moslem families, both Iraqis and non-Iraqis who lived and thrived in Baghdad. Interwoven with the personal stories are historical chapters and facts that enable the reader to gain in-depth knowledge of the complexities of the religions, cultural and socio-economic background of Iraq and its people. References to present day conditions in Iraq act like a magnifying glass, making the potential for the country¡¦s possibly hopeful future, if it can find a connection to its more happy past, all the more vivid. The story is not told chronologically. The author weaves back and forth making time and space, condense and merge. There is a co-presence of different eras and events giving the book an unusual richness. Flashbacks and leaps into the present co-exist simultaneously creating a weave not unlike the arabesque intertwining of Arabic ornaments.

In Baghdad, Lina is trying to lead a normal life, but politics keep intruding. Violent government coups are almost annual events and it's difficult for a child to understand what's going on or who to believe. The need for secrecy means Lina cannot tell her best friend that they are just waiting for the right moment to flee. It is the 1960s and Lina is part of the dwindling Jewish community... Mona Yahia was born in Baghdad in 1954 and escaped with her family to Israel in 1970. In 1985 she moved to Germany to study fine arts and has remained there ever since. Winner of the Jewish Quarterly Wingate Prize for Fiction 2001 'Yahia rolls Baghdad around her tongue, savouring its suks, smells, and sweetmeats (reading her makes one hungry). This is a truly exotic novel, but it's also a coming-of-age work in which the almost imperceptible transformation from childhood to adolescence is saltily observed and never sentimentalised. Yahia's prose courses with insight and wit. Her deftness of touch means that, despite its subject-matter, this novel never becomes a bleak tale of religious persecution, but remains a fresh story about adolescent experience in adversity - with parallels in the most unlikely places.' Anne Karpf, The Guardian 'The novel powerfully conveys the author's outrage, as well as her nostalgia for her native land.' The Times 'Yahia's writing evokes both the sensuality of domestic intimacy...alongside the horror of public hangings...When the Grey Beetles Took Over Baghdad is most politically sophisticated, and also most poignant, when it explores questions of language and identity.' Alev Adil, Times Literary Supplement