ESCAPE FROM SADDAM

A hair-raising and sensitively wrought tale of an Iraqi soldier who deserted Saddam Hussein’s army in the early 1990s and headed to England to claim political asylum.

The author’s parents had lived in England when he was a child, and his father was studying in Manchester. In 1988, 12-year-old Alsamari was sent to live with his mother in Baghdad, then briefly with his now-returned father in Mosul, all the while growing increasingly alienated from the oppressive conditions in Iraq. While planning—with the aid of his Uncle Saad—to leave the country and find a way to study back in England, Alsamari was summoned for military duty in Samarra. He participated in the physically and mentally debilitating training program before his English-language skills allowed him some movement within the ranks and a chance to escape. After being shot in the leg and driven back to Baghdad by a compassionate taxi driver, the author sought out his uncle to plot a route out of the country. First, Alsamari ensconced himself among the Bedouins, who directed him to the Jordanian border. Successfully fleeing a pack of snarling wolves, he penetrated into Amman, where he worked as a low-wage laborer before attempting the next step by air to Malaysia with a forged United Arab Emirates passport, and then to London. Although he was allowed to stay and work, thanks in part to his Uncle Faisal, who was living in Leeds, he soon learned that his family had been imprisoned at Abu Ghraib as punishment for his escape. After years of attempting to secure money to help them—including embezzlement from his employers, which landed him in British jail and court—Alsamari was able to transport them from Iraq to England. The author later became an actor and went on to play the lead terrorist in Paul Greengrass’s 2006 film United 93.

A sharply delineated personal account charged with great emotional power.