Reviews

It took me a bit to understand the narrative structure of this book but once I did it transported me. So emotive and poetic.

I also learned a lot about the history of Jewish people in Iraq, and I’m so grateful I picked this book up at the library.

lucie_b's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

3.25

theblandfalafel's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Content Warnings

martijn_grooten's review against another edition

Go to review page

Beautifully drawn sketches documenting the decline of the Jewish community in Baghdad in the course of the 20th century.

silverliningsandpages's review

Go to review page

5.0

The Wolf of Baghdad by Carol Isaacs is a dazzling and transportive graphic memoir of the lost homeland the author has never visited. In the 1940s, a third of Baghdad’s population was Jewish, having lived harmoniously with Muslims and Christians for decades. With the rise of antisemitism which spread from Europe, nearly all of Iraq’s 150,000 Jews had fled within a decade, with now only five remaining in Baghdad today. Through short, simple captions appearing as memories of the author’s long-gone ancestors, the author (in the company of an enigmatic wolf) explores the culture, sights and sounds of the city in a visceral way. The darker depiction of this ancient community’s tragic demise reminds me of Picasso’s harrowing Guernica painting at Reina Sofia in Madrid, particularly of the anguish and horror of the mother holding her dead baby. It also triggered my memories of seeing the deeply moving ghetto children’s paintings in the Jewish Quarter in Prague.

More...