The Orange Trees of Baghdad:
in search of my lost family
a memoir by Leilah Nadir
with photos by Farah Nosh
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Key Porter Books; 1 edition (Sep 1 2007)
ISBN-10: 155263941X
ISBN-10: 978-1552639412
Press
Canadian reissue of The Orange Trees of Baghdad
Excerpt in Maisonneuve magazine
Interview with Jennifer Hunter of the Toronto Star
Leilah Nadir appeared on CBC’s Early Edition on October 3rd, 2014 to give her thoughts on the Canadian government joining the fight on ISIS in Iraq.
Press for UK Launch
Review in Lacuna magazine
Essay on Writing The Orange Trees of Baghdad in Lacuna magazine
UK launch at The Big Green Bookshop by Levant TV
We Love This Book Feature article
For Books Sake review
For Books Sake Interview
Female First interview with Leilah Nadir
Nahla Ink review
Nahla Ink interview
The SOAS spirit review
The SOAS spirit interview
BBC Scotland review on Sunday Morning
Reviews for How They See Us: Meditations on America
Essays and Fragments
Publisher's Weekly starred review
Washington Post
San Francisco Chronicle
Dallas Morning News
Library Journal
History News Network
The Jewish Journal of Greater LA
Leilah Nadir was interviewed on Bookmark on CKUA, Alberta. Broadcast on November 29 2009 and January 12, 2010.
[Listen to interview]
An interview with Leilah Nadir, SEE magazine, Edmonton
Leilah Nadir was interviewed for the Arabic Show on World FM Edmonton on Saturday October 24, 2009
Leilah Nadir appeared on Breakfast TV Edmonton on Friday October 23, 2009
Leilah Nadir appeared on CTV Noon News on Friday October 23, 2009
Article on Leilah Nadir in the Edmonton Journal on October 21, 2009
Article on Leilah Nadir in Edmonton Journal on October 21, 2009
Leilah Nadir appeared on CTV Noon News in Calgary on
March 11, 2009
Leilah Nadir is interviewed on CBC Wildrose Country on
March 12, 2009
[direct mp3 file download]
She was also heard on The World Tonight on CHQR AM 770, Calgary on March 11, 2009
The Globe and Mail announces that The Orange Trees of Baghdad is available in paperback.
Profile of Leilah Nadir on the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism's website, Reportage.
Brisbane Courier Mail (Helen Fargan)
Skillfully told with extraordinary warmth, her story gives us an incredible and often surprising insight into a Middle-Eastern culture that is simultaneously exotic and familiar, comforting and terrifying ... This is a compelling, touching and beautifully written book that thoughtfully challenges assumptions about a place and a people lost in the miasma of war.
Canadian Literature
Nadir’s work is stunning in its brilliance and poignant in its elegance. The text does not provide the kind of satisfaction readers may hope for in terms of easy resolution, but The Orange Trees of Baghdad is a compelling memoir, worthy of every reader?s time, precisely because it eschews a simplistic understanding of all the issues it discusses.+MORE+
Leilah Nadir’s reads her perspective on Writing in the Red Zone for Australian National Radio ABC
Listen to Leilah Nadir’s interview with Philip Adams on Late Night Live on ABC (Australian National Radio)
CBC Radio One Sounds Like Canada interview with Shelagh Rogers February 15,2008 Listen Here
(please search on The Next Chapter for Leilah Nadir, January 10th, 2009)
In the Halifax Daily News, Stephen Clare writes about the new voices in Canadian literature that reflect the country's diversity.+MORE+
Profile and Book Review in The Georgia Straight
Like any reasonable person, Leilah Nadir is outraged by the American invasion of Iraq–and by the dismal statistics that continue to accumulate...+MORE+
Book Review in The Montreal Mirror
Book Review in the Vancouver Sun
The timing of first-time author Leilah Nadir's book on Iraq is certainly serendipitous. The Orange Trees of Baghdad: In Search of My Lost Family arrives just as the Bush administration has released a report from its generals on the progress of the Iraq War, an assessment that could change the war's course...+MORE+
Also appeared in The Star Phoenix
Also in Montreal Gazette
Also in The Calgary Herald, Trees grows from Iraq roots
Also in The Edmonton Journal, A Love Song to Iraqi People
March 11, 2009
March 12, 2009 [direct mp3 file download]
Skillfully told with extraordinary warmth, her story gives us an incredible and often surprising insight into a Middle-Eastern culture that is simultaneously exotic and familiar, comforting and terrifying ... This is a compelling, touching and beautifully written book that thoughtfully challenges assumptions about a place and a people lost in the miasma of war.
Nadir’s work is stunning in its brilliance and poignant in its elegance. The text does not provide the kind of satisfaction readers may hope for in terms of easy resolution, but The Orange Trees of Baghdad is a compelling memoir, worthy of every reader?s time, precisely because it eschews a simplistic understanding of all the issues it discusses.+MORE+
(please search on The Next Chapter for Leilah Nadir, January 10th, 2009)
Like any reasonable person, Leilah Nadir is outraged by the American invasion of Iraq–and by the dismal statistics that continue to accumulate...+MORE+
The timing of first-time author Leilah Nadir's book on Iraq is certainly serendipitous. The Orange Trees of Baghdad: In Search of My Lost Family arrives just as the Bush administration has released a report from its generals on the progress of the Iraq War, an assessment that could change the war's course...+MORE+
Also appeared in The Star Phoenix
Also in Montreal Gazette
Also in The Calgary Herald, Trees grows from Iraq roots
Bladerunner blog by Stephen Hunt of the Calgary Herald features The Orange Trees of Baghdad.
CKNW The Christy Clark Show interview with Leilah Nadir.
CBC Radio BC Almanac interview with Mark Forsythe
The Orange Trees of Baghdad is recommended reading.
BC Bookworld Winter 2007–2008 "N is for Nadir"
Global BC News at noon interview with Leilah Nadir on Friday September 14, 2007.
City TV Breakfast Television Vancouver Leilah Nadir was interviewed by Simi Sara on Wednesday October 3, 2007.
AM 940 Montreal, Quebec Joe Cannon interviewed Leilah Nadir on Thursday October 4, 2007.
AM 980 CFPL London, Ontario John Wilson interviewed Leilah Nadir on Tuesday October 2, 2007.
FM 98.5 CKWR Kitchener, Ontario John Maciel interviewed Leilah Nadir on Wednesday October 10, 2007.
CBC radio interview with Leilah Nadir broadcast across the country on Monday September 10, 2007, on regional programs in Victoria, Calgary, Quebec City, Windsor, Thunder Bay, Yellowknife, Whitehorse, Charlottetown, Winnipeg and St. John.
Elle Canada September 2007
In The Orange Trees of Baghdad: In Search of My Lost Family (Key Porter), Leilah Nadir writes about a place she has never been to—a country her father last saw in 1960, when he left Iraq to go to school in England. By telling her story of exile, she is giving voice to so many émigrés who have been cut off from their past by war and insurrection.
Quill and Quire
"The Orange Trees of Baghdad is a found memoir, a record of partial memories
and secondhand observations of world events. In it, Canadian-Iraqi author
and journalist Leilah Nadir strikes out to learn about the lives of her
grandfather's family in Iraq over the past 30 years. The book belongs as
much to her father as it does to Nadir: she uncovers her own past through
his experiences...her attempt to trace her family tree in an uncommon land
makes this a compelling first book from a thoughtful writer."