This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy in as many hands as I could.
This is the second novel by Tim Murphy I’ve featured in this series. I’m not sure I’ve done that with anyone else but he’s a writer who seems much overlooked, at least here in the UK. His first novel, Christodora, told the story of AIDS through the tenants of a Manhattan apartment building. Correspondents explores the Iraq war and its aftermath through an ambitious, bright young journalist and her Iraqi interpreter.
Rita is the daughter of second-generation immigrant parents, one from a Lebanese family, the other with Irish roots. Taken on by a liberal newspaper, she’s eager to be posted to Iraq when war breaks out. Nabil is the interpreter assigned to her, spurred on to apply by his ambitious cousin who’s also employed as an interpreter. Nabil and Rita become close, calling each other the Danger Twins, each looking out for the other as Iraq spirals into a chaos of violence, until Rita makes the mistake of speaking her mind about the conduct of the war one drunken evening.
Murphy’s immersive, involving novel is humane and deeply moving. It’s also a great piece of storytelling which left me wondering why he’s not talked about as much as he deserves.
What about you, any blasts from the past you’d like to share?
You can find more posts like this here.
