The Gardener of Baghdad
Ahmad Ardalan
Ahmad Ardalan
4.0star
3 reviews
Ebook
236
Pages
About this ebook
Two people, one city, different times; connected by a memoir. Can love exist in a city destined for decades of misery?
Adnan leads a weary existence as a bookshop owner in modern-day, war-torn Baghdad, where bombings, corruption and assault are everyday occurrences and the struggle to survive has suffocated the joy out of life for most. But when he begins to clean out his bookshop of forty years to leave his city in search of somewhere safer, he comes across the story of Ali, the Gardener of Baghdad, Adnan rediscovers through a memoir handwritten by the gardener decades ago that beauty, love and hope can still exist, even in the darkest corners of the world.
Adnan leads a weary existence as a bookshop owner in modern-day, war-torn Baghdad, where bombings, corruption and assault are everyday occurrences and the struggle to survive has suffocated the joy out of life for most. But when he begins to clean out his bookshop of forty years to leave his city in search of somewhere safer, he comes across the story of Ali, the Gardener of Baghdad, Adnan rediscovers through a memoir handwritten by the gardener decades ago that beauty, love and hope can still exist, even in the darkest corners of the world.
Ratings and reviews
4.0
3 reviews
Janice Tangen
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September 23, 2018
Iraq, historical-places-events, historical-romance, memoir A beautiful tale of love, discrimination, obsession, and a city and country that have suffered much in the last fifty odd years. The bookseller in Baghdad lives in precarious times, and while unhappily examining a book he finds that its innards have been replaced by a locket and the personal journal of a man who identifies himself as the Gardener of Baghdad. This is the love story that is interrupted by discrimination and revolution. The obsession is that of the bookseller who is compelled to read it and try to find out what happened after its abrupt end over fifty years ago. Randal Schaffer gives a moving audio performance as narrator. I requested and received a free audio copy via AudioBookBOOM, and then discovered an ebook copy in my TBR pile from a year ago!
Maureen Cox
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May 12, 2018
The novel is simply and at times awkwardly written. I wonder if this is due
to the translation. Nevertheless, I did enjoy the story, which offered a
peak into another culture and history, of which I sadly know very little. I
do recommend this book and I look forward to educating myself further on
Iraq through the eyes of Mr. Ardalan and his other novels.
About the author
Ahmad Ardalan is a two-time cancer survivor. He was born in Baghdad in 1979. At the age of two, he moved with his parents to Vienna, Austria, where he spent most of his childhood and underwent his primary studies. After his father's diplomatic mission finished at the end of 1989, he returned to Iraq, where he continued his studies and graduated from the University of Dentistry. As a result of the unstable political, military, social, and economic conditions in his home country, Ahmad decided to leave Iraq and move to the UAE. After facing difficulties to pursue his career in dentistry, he opted to pursue employment in the business world. Since then, Ardalan has held several senior roles within the pharmaceutical and FMCG industries, throughout much of the Middle East. His early childhood in a mixed cultural environment, as well as his world travels, increased his passion for learning about cultures of the world and inspired him to pen The Clout of Gen, his first novel. After eleven years of being away, Ahmad returned to Baghdad in January 2013 on a visit that was full of mixed emotions. Inspired by his trip to Iraq, he wrote his second novel, The Gardener of Baghdad. He did not stop there, as "Matt" his latest Short Story Thriller Series became available beginning 2015. The Gardener of Baghdad, opened readers' eyes to a different picture of the city they had heard of. With hope and love as his message, Ardalan released Baghdad: The Final Gathering, and followed it by The Boy of the Mosque.
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Facebook Page: facebook.com/AhmadArdalan799/
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