KEY POINTS:
Saddam Hussein was an atrocious, some would say, evil leader. Not many would disagree with that proposition. But let's not forget the army of followers who, with little prompting, zealously carried out the despot's edicts and who represent the real malevolence. Nabeel's Song delivers such a reminder in its insight into the day-to-day mechanics of tyranny.
The biography of Iraqi poet Nabeel Yasin begins in the 1950s, moves through the Baathist uprising of 1963 and then Saddam's rise to power and reign of terror. Poets, writers and artists are early targets of the regime and the Yassin family soon finds how difficult life is when infrastructure fails, food is in short supply and secret police routinely round people up for interrogation, torture and imprisonment.
Nabeel stays as long as he can, but declared an "Enemy of the State", is eventually forced into exile. "He is a casualty in a hidden war. Their country has invaded itself and is turning so many of its people into criminals." Journalist Jo Tatchell's matter-of-fact telling of the Yassins' struggle is testament to the strength of family bonds in the face of impossible cruelty.
The writing takes a back seat to a compelling narrative, capturing the detail of Saddam's megalomania. Diktats go out that he is to be known as "His Excellency the President the Leader God Placed Him" and that everyone must hang his portrait in their homes. Nabeel's mother Sabria refuses but Saddam's thugs bring her a framed photo and demand she hangs it. Only when they threaten to kill her children does she give in.
When Nabeel escapes Iraq he makes his mother promise to renounce him as a son to avoid retribution and tells his remaining brothers and sisters to do the same. Tatchell paints a heartbreaking departure scene - his mother dropping to her knees and bowing her head to the ground. "Looking back, Nabeel sees only the bent black figure of his mother crying into the stones."
But although Nabeel's Song is a bleak outlook - he is still unable to return home - there are glimmers of hope. Resistance in the face of oppressive adversity is Nabeel's recurring theme portrayed in the story of Tawfiq, a tailor who, appalled by Saddam's military literature, distributes books and photocopies Nabeels smuggled poems. "I am a broker, that's all ... I trade in ideas and the human imagination. There should be no harm in that."
* Sceptre, $40
* Chris Barton is a Herald feature writer.
