First published 2010
Paul Bremer leads the Coalition Provisional Authority from within a fortified luxury complex in Baghdad, 2003. His team consists largely of idealists selected based on their positions on abortion and capital punishment rather than expertise in postwar reconstruction. During the crucial first year of occupation, Bremer and his staff focus on creating new traffic laws and microchip design protection legislation while remaining isolated from the chaos engulfing Iraq outside their walls. The CPA operates like inhabitants of an Oz-like bubble, pursuing objectives disconnected from the urgent needs of a country struggling through postwar turmoil. Former Washington Post Baghdad bureau chief Rajiv Chandrasekaran provides an intimate portrait of life inside this insulated world, revealing how American administrators remained oblivious to the reality beyond their compound walls.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 21st-century, political-thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Baghdad, Iraq
Period: 2003
368 pages · Paperback · Vintage Espanol