Out of Iraq
by Lewis Alsamari
Bantam Press, HK$248
It's hard these days to think of a time before the chaos - back to the sanctions and before that to the 1991 Gulf war. But that's the world from which emerged Lewis Alsamari, a young Iraqi actor who played the lead hijacker in the September 11 film, United 93.
Out of Iraq is the incredibly honest and heartbreaking tale of a young man longing for family and security, but denied both. It's the quintessential refugee's tale, too: fleeing persecution and the cruelty of the Iraqi regime, Alsamari's chronicle is one of stress and people smuggling, and the terror that follows. Anyone who believes that claiming asylum is an easy option should read this book.
Alsamari (known as Sarmed) was raised in a lower-middle-class family, including a childhood spell in Britain. His uncle was a war hero, his father a respected official with a PhD and good connections. He paints a winsome picture of life before the Kuwaiti invasion: watermelons are eaten by the side of the street; faded photographs show his relatives in happier times. We meet Alsamari's grandparents, his mother (now estranged from his father) and ever-present uncle Saad, who will suffer much before Alsamari claims his freedom.
Right from the outset, however, there's the shadow of menace. This is Saddam's Iraq, where a black Mercedes bearing Saddam's psychopathic son, Uday Hussein, can draw up in a neighbourhood. Even the young children can sense the threat emanating from the man who, as sports minister, is known to have tortured Iraqi Olympic athletes for underperforming.