The Flying Carpet of Small Miracles: One Woman's Fight to Save Two Orphans - Softcover

Jaber, Hala

3.73

558 ratings by Goodreads

9781594484667: The Flying Carpet of Small Miracles: One Woman's Fight to Save Two Orphans

Softcover

ISBN 10: 159448466X ISBN 13: 9781594484667

Publisher: Riverhead Books, 2010

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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 hospital--and 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.

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Review:

"Powerful. Unforgettable. Hala Jaber paints heart-breaking portraits of children and families who have lost a great deal, some everything, during the Iraq war. She takes us into the lives of fearless, selfless journalists, volunteer workers, and doctors, who try at great risk to themselves to help these devastated people. Jaber's own quest to adopt two orphan children weaves through the narrative with moving detail, providing an extra, personal dimension. She brings us close to deep desires, tragedies, as well as fulfillment."
-Nahid Rachlin, author of "Persian Girls"
aFrom the midst of rubble and ash in Baghdad, Hala Jaber tells of the devastation of war, of families wiped out and of survivorsa agony and pain. However Jaberas account also shows us a ray of hope through the person of Hawra, an Iraqi orphan who has lost her parents and six siblings. Told through the eyes of a journalist and written from the passion of a woman yearning to raise a family, Jaberas account is not only the personal journey of a remarkable woman but also a worthy testimony to the suffering of a people.a
aMarina Nemat, author of "Prisoner of Tehran"
aFew women will have faced or chosen the conditions and traumas that Jaber has, but many women will understand how ferociously stretched and torn she feels. Personally moving and politically thought-provoking, Jaberas book stares down war and insists on hope.a
aMartha Moody, author of "Best Friends" and "Sometimes Mine"
aIt is essential that we learn from other cultures. Recounting the traumas of war and sacrificed innocence in "The Flying Carpet of Small Miracles," Hala Jaber brings us into this other world in a way that enlightens ourunderstanding of ourselves. A moving and sober book; to be read and considered thoughtfully.a
aYasmina Khadra, author of "The Swallows of Kabul"
aJaber maps the ancient roads of the human heart, where a childless woman longs for a baby of her own and embraces Baghdad's smallest victims instead. The result is a unique and haunting tale. Family, finally, is those who love us, and those we choose to love.a
aMelissa Fay Greene, author of "Praying for Sheetrock" and "There is No Me Without You"

About the Author:

Hala Jaber was born in West Africa and grew up in Lebanon, where her family still lives. 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.

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