Really incredible. You'd think that a book about Iraq published in 2004 would be outdated to the point of irrelevance, but this is really timeless. A absolutely heartbreaking account that really foregrounds the contrast between Baghdad's past and it's present. It's hard to imagine how a place with so much significance, history, and culture has just been decimated, and even worse when you think of what's happened SINCE the occupation. Shadid effectively portrays the human toll of the decades of violence, dictatorship, occupation, and sanctions - who could come out of that unscathed? Is it any surprise that things turned out as they have, after all that? I wish Shadid was around to write about the present day situation - his style of reporting weaves together intensely individual and personal stories to create a picture of the whole that is complex, contradictory, and not at all reductive. I could go on forever, this is definitely worth a read and is very relevant to the present day; it has completely expanded and complicated my view of Iraq and of the broader Middle East, even though I was already pretty educated on the topic.

This is a fascinating and sobering glimpse into the "other" side of the war in Iraq. I went to Baghdad as a contractor in 2009, so it was enlightening to get context on many of the things I saw and hear. I just wish the book had continue to encapsulate more of the conflict. Shadid's perspective and language are eloquent and captivating. Though at times, some points became belabored, like reading a news article on repeat.

I started reading this the day after the news broke that its author, Anthony Shadid, had died in Syria. Shadid wrote a wonderful book that is a testament to his dedication as a journalist, as well as to his compassion as a person. As an American reading about the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the subsequent insurgency -- with almost a decade of hindsight -- I found myself frustrated and enraged.

Occasionally suffers from overwrought prose -- particularly in the beginning and end -- but it's still a very necessary narrative still ignored even today: The lives of Iraqis during the war.

I finally read this one. The book was published almost ten years ago, and it might seem I am really late for reading this. The sad truth is that Iraq today is not much different from the one Shadid describes in the book – in it, the night draws near fast and everything is ghamidha, ambigious.

Shadid writes: “Baghdad is a city of lives interrupted, its history a story of loss, waiting, and resilience. In the days before the American invasion in March 2003, the capital scarred by war after war felt torn, aggrieved, and filled with longing for the greatness it once possessed and has never forgotten.”

He is great at observing how the greatness Baghdad once possessed plays a formative role in the Iraqi culture of memory:

“Rome can still see its past, the magnificence of its ancient empire gracing the modern cityscape. Paris and London, storied cities reinventing themselves as they age across centuries, live in their histories, which surround them. Baghdad, its ancient grandeur utterly destroyed, cannot see its past, its glory. It can only remember. Baghdad’s is a culture of memory, the city that draws strength and pride from the myths to which it continually returns. But the curse of recalling is the reminder of what has been lost.”

This book is a rare accomplishment because its focus is almost entirely on Iraqi people and the way this long war cripples their lives. Unlike many reporters, Shadid doesn’t forget that and doesn’t end up writing a book about himself (which is what many journalists do). He went independently through Iraq, detached from US forces, and on daily basis he asked the Iraqi people how they feel about the state of affairs in their country.

The dichotomy of the war (Washington vs. Baghdad, media vs. reality) becomes very obvious in this book. The war that is at the same time proclaimed a liberation and an occupation, is after all and before all – a war. Shadid notes all the little frustrations of the people – who cannot understand the efficiency of a superpower (US) that can take out their leader in couple of weeks, but is so inefficient in keeping the electricity running.

Throughout the book, we meet Iraqi people, different people with different backgrounds (social status, education, religion), and see how all their lives became similiar – reduced to war. We meet, for example, fourteen-year-old girl, Amal, who kept a diary starting around the beginning of the war. We see how she changes with time, how war changes her.

Shadid alo explains how fundamentalist used the growing hatred of America and found a way to appeal to young people – mostly desperate, without work and sense of purpose (and future) in life.

Night Draws Near is a truly important book – for all of us to understand, for all of us to bare witness. That is the fair thing to do, that is the least we can do.

Through its storied history, Baghdad has had many names. Its medieval Abassid rulers knew it as Medinat al-Salam, the City of Peace. I hope it returns to that.

Sometimes it isn't as simple as it looks on CNN.

Best part of the book is that the author mainly talks here to regular iraqis.we see how the war changes through their eyes and in their lives.

The best description that best fit iraq and its future and I quote the book here is "ghamida". a word which the late author finds apt to describe the fortunes of the country.

A devastatingly depressing account of the occupation of Iraq, told mostly from the point of view of the Iraqi people themselves. Maybe it started with good intentions, but really there was no way it was going to turn out well. I honestly don't know what to say, except that I still plan to make sure that George W. Bush is remembered as one of the single worst presidents in the history of this country. (Also too, it strengthens my resolve to keep Mittens out of the Oval Office, since many of his foreign policy advisers, like, for instance, Dan Senor, who was the delusional mouthpiece for Bremer's CPA, are card-carrying neocons. The Republicans aren't going to learn a goddamn thing until America teaches it to them, good and hard.)

If you want something similar, but from a more American-oriented POV, try The Forever War by Dexter Filkins or Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran. All three of these books are very depressing, in their own ways.