Synopses & Reviews
"Please stop sending emails asking if I were for real, dont believe it? Then dont read it. I am not anybodys propaganda ploy, well except my own. 2 more hours until the B52s get to Iraq." Salam Pax
Salam Pax attracted a huge worldwide readership for the Weblog, or Internet diary, he kept during the buildup, prosecution, and aftermath of the war in Iraq. Where is Raed?, provided an outlet for the incisive, perceptive, and at times hilarious commentary of an everyday Iraqi during the final days of Saddam Hussein's regime. Bringing his incisive and sharply funny Web postings together in print for the first time, Salam Pax provides one of the most gripping accounts of the Iraq conflict and will be the subject of global media attention.
In September 2002, a twenty-nine-year-old Iraqi architect calling himself "Salam Pax" began posting daily accounts of everyday life in Baghdad onto the Internet. Written in English, these postings contained everything from descriptions of the hardships of life in Saddam Hussein's paranoid regime, to reviews of the latest (pirate) CDs by Coldplay and Bjork, to gossip about his employers. Salam daily risked retribution from Saddam's regime, as more than 200,000 people went missing under Saddam, many for far lesser crimes than the open criticism of the regime that Salam voiced in his diary.
Salam Pax's sharp, candid, and often dryly funny articles soon attracted a worldwide readership. In the months that followed, as a huge American-led force gathered to destroy Saddam's hated regime, Salam's Internet diary became a unique record of the anticipation, anger, resentment, humor, and sheer terror felt by an ordinary man living through the final days of Saddam Hussein's twenty-five-year dictatorship, and the aftermath of its destruction. Salam Pax is an astonishing record of the last days of Saddam and the clandestine diary of an ordinary Iraqi.
Review
"'Salam Pax' is an extremely talented writer. The singularity of his position and subject matter can lead one to overlook this, but I was aware of it as soon as I started reading him, just prior to the war. The fact that English is not his first language actually underscores his gifts of observation and expression; he'll write 'around' his own uncertainty of usage, and get it right on the button." William Gibson
Review
"Salam Pax was the Anne Frank of the war...and its Elvis." Peter Maass, Slate
Review
"There are dozens of journalists and TV cameras in the Iraqi capital. But the most vivid account of the build-up to war and the start of the bombing has appeared on the internet on the weblog of an unknown Iraqi writing under the name Salam Pax." Leo Hickman, The Guardian
Review
"In turns crass and subtle, provincial and worldly, the diary of Salam Pax has become one voice of an Internet generation alienated from nations and tribes but connected to one another in the most intimate digital ways." Los Angeles Times
Review
"One of the most talked about [blogs] is that of a man known as 'Salam Pax.' Both parts of his nom de plume 'Salam' and 'Pax' mean peace, in Arabic and Latin, respectively. His accounts of the recent bombings, the current state of affairs in the Iraqi capital and his family's reactions offer an incredible view of life in Baghdad." Erica Hill, CNN.com
Review
"A mysterious Iraqi who goes by the name of 'Salam Pax' and who writes a blog (Internet diary) from Baghdad is becoming a celebrity, on the Internet, with his firsthand stories of a city under siege...the traffic on the site has become so intense that it has blocked the server, while his e-mail has gone on the blink due to the vast number of messages from people who are asking him to prove his true identity." La Stampa (Italy)
Review
"In the run-up to the US-led invasion of Iraq, the major international news channels invested many millions of pounds to guarantee the quality of their coverage. Ambitious young journalists flocked to Iraq, to make their names by reporting the dramatic events in Baghdad. Yet it was a twenty-nine-year-old Iraqi architect, posting a weblog in English ('blogging') from a middle-class Baghdad suburb, who became one of the most authentic voices chronicling the build-up to war, the invasion and its chaotic aftermath. Salam Pax, in a witty, sometimes catty monologue, managed to do what the combined weight of the international media could not. Using a cheap computer and unreliable internet access, he documented the traumas and more importantly the opinions of Iraqis as they faced the uncertainty of violent regime change." Toby Dodge, Times Literary Supplement (read the entire TLS review)
Synopsis
Salam Pax has attracted a huge worldwide readership for the Internet diary he kept during the buildup, prosecution, and aftermath of the war in Iraq. Bringing his incisive and sharply funny Web postings together in print for the first time, Salam Pax provides one of the most gripping accounts of the Iraq conflict and will be the subject of global media attention. In September 2002, twenty-nine-year-old Iraqi architect calling himself "Salam Pax" began posting daily accounts of everyday life in Baghdad onto the Internet. Salam daily risked retribution from Saddam's regime, as more than 200,000 people went missing under Saddam, many for far lesser crimes than the open criticism of the regime that Salam voiced in his diary. Salam Pax's sharp, candid, and often dryly funny articles soon attracted a worldwide readership. In the months that followed, as a huge American-led force gathered to destroy Saddam's hated regime, Salam's Internet diary became a unique record of the anticipation, anger, resentment, humor, and sheer terror felt by an ordinary man living through the final days of Saddam Hussein's twenty-five-year dictatorship, and the aftermath of its destruction.
About the Author
Salam Pax, a pseudonym, currently lives in Baghdad and writes a weekly syndicated column for London's The Guardian newspaper.