Dimensions
155 x 234 x 25mm
The astounding true story of one man's struggle to free himself and his family from Saddam's Iraq.
Aged 17, Lewis Alsamari was conscripted into the Iraqi army. Things went from bad to worse once his superiors discovered his ability to speak English, and Lewis was selected for Saddam's elite, top secret intelligence service, an offer he literally could not refuse. This left him with only one option -- to escape from his native land, leaving his family behind him...
Going under the wire of the army compound where he was posted, Lewis was shot in the leg, making his escape -- which required a gruelling journey in disguise across the desert at night with a group of Bedouin, at the mercy of ravenous wolves -- all the more arduous. Against the odds, Lewis survived this trek, made is across the border into Oman, and eventually sought asylum in the UK, where he had spent his childhood.
Now he had to work out how to rescue his mother and sister, who had been thrown into Abu Ghraib once Lewis's escape had become known. The only thing which could help was money and lots of it, so Lewis fraudulently transferred £37,500 from the accounts of William Hill (where he had a temporary job) into his own bank, and wired it to Baghdad in order to pay the necessary bribes. But, of course, it wasn't quite that simple...
'Out of Iraq' is an exhilarating and terrifying story of one man's escape from one of the harshest regimes of the modern era. It is testament both to the strength of the human spirit and to the extremes we'll go to in order to keep our families safe.
