Love In A Torn Land

True story of the bride of a Kurdish freedom fighter caught up in Saddam's chemical attacks, by the bestselling author of the Princess trilogy and 'Mayada, Daughter Of Iraq'.

Bestselling author Jean Sasson tells the dramatic true story of a young woman caught up in Saddam Hussein’s genocide of the Kurdish people of Iraq. One morning Joanna, a young bride living in the Kurdish mountains of Iraq, was surprised to see dead birds drop silently out of the clear sky.They were followed by sinister canisters falling from helicopters, bringing fear and death.

It was 1987, and Saddam Hussein had ordered his cousin ‘Chemical Ali’ to bombard Joanna’s village, Bergalou, with chemical weapons. Temporarily blinded in the attack, Joanna was rescued by her husband, a Kurdish freedom fighter. After being caught in another bombardment and left for dead in the rubble, they managed to flee over the mountains in a harrowing escape.

Now living in the UK and working as a translator, Joanna has told her story to Jean Sasson, the bestselling chronicler of oppressed women’s lives. 'Love In A Torn Land' is published while the world watches the unfolding of Saddam’s trial for his crimes against humanity, including the genocide of the Kurdish people.