Synopses & Reviews
The inspiring true story of a prizewinning foreign correspondent longing for a child, two small Iraqi children in need of a mother, and what love and grief can teach us about family and hope.
Zahra, age three, and Hawra, only a few months old, were the only survivors of a missile strike in Baghdad in 2003 that killed their parents and five siblings. Across the world, in London, foreign correspondent Hala Jaber was preparing to head to Iraq to cover the emerging war. After ten years spent trying to conceive and struggling with fertility problems, Jaber and her husband had finally resigned themselves to a childless future. Now she intended to bury her grief in her work, with some unusually dangerous reporting. Once in Iraq, though, Jaber found herself drawn again and again to stories of mothers and children, a path that led her to an Iraqi children's hospitaland to Zahra and Hawra and their heart-wrenching story. Almost instantly Jaber became entwined in the lives of these two Iraqi children, and in a struggle to advocate on their behalf that reveals far more about the human cost of war than any news bulletin ever could.
Beautifully written and deeply moving, The Flying Carpet of Small Miracles presents a genuinely fresh insight and perspective from a woman who, as an Arab living and working in the West, is able to uniquely straddle both worlds. In its attention to the emotional experiences of women and children whose lives are irrevocably changed by war, Jaber's story offers hope for redemption for those caught in its cross fires.
Synopsis
An award-winning journalist on a quest to save two orphans of war. Hala Jaber and her husband had spent ten years trying to conceive, only to resign themselves, finally, to a childless future. Instead of being consumed by grief, they threw themselves into their work as journalists, making the decision to go to Baghdad to report on the coming war.
Jaber's search for stories led her to two orphans at a children's hospital: Zahra and Hawra. She fought passionately to help them- ultimately even trying to adopt them-before discovering that there is more than one way to love and raise a child, and more than one way to be a mother.
Synopsis
From prize-winning foreign correspondent Jaber comes the inspiring true story of her longing to have a child, two orphaned Iraqi girls in need of a mother, and the things that love and grief can teach about family and hope.
About the Author
Hala Jaber���was born in West Africa and grew up in Lebanon, where her family still lives. She is the author of the memoir The Flying Carpet of Small Miracles. She began her journalistic career in the Press Association bureau in Beirut. Twice named Foreign Reporter of the Year at the British Press Awards, in 2005 and 2006, she has been honored by Amnesty International and in 2007 won the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism.