READING IDEAS FOR THE WEEK

All Our Broken Idols, Paul M M Cooper, Bloomsbury, £8.99

This new release from Paul M M Cooper blends modern and ancient history in a genre-defying story that takes in archaeology, Iraqi history, family bonds, civil war, religion and romance.

The novel is split into a dual narrative which transports the reader between the 7th Century and modern-day Iraq.

We are introduced to Katya and Auyra in ancient times: Auyra and her brother Sharo live in poverty, with an abusive alcoholic father, suffering after the death of his wife. Sharo inhabits his own world, and has a love of lions. The siblings find their lives transformed when they escape to the mystical Ninevah and a magical kingdom which contrasts starkly with the reality of their own lives. Interlaced with this is the story of Katya and her guide Salim in modern Iraq.

Katya, an archaeologist, visits her father’s native land hoping to unlock an element of her identity which has been suppressed after his death.

She is working alongside Salim, excavating an old site in Iraq, hoping to find something of note to enter the history books. She is staying in the natural museum, which has been destroyed by bombing, but the building gives her a sense of protection and safety, while surrounded by the antiques and relics of a oncegreat nation.

Danger is never far away, as Iraq is under siege from extremists who want to remove any traces of the past and replace them with a new version of history. An underlying tension punctuates the narrative, heightened by the atmospheric setting of an old ruin, and indeed the back and forth between the stories of Katya and Auyra, united through a sense of loss and desire to rediscover who they are.

Having had no prior knowledge of Iraq’s ancient history, or indeed much of Iraqi history, the parallels between the past and present were not immediately clear, but the author cleverly weaves the ancient and modern to produce a mythical, romantic and often harrowing story. Notable is the characterisation of Lola, a Yazidi girl symbolic of the Yazidi people, women in particular, who have long suffered brutally at the hands of extremists. Her sombre stoicism is a sharp reminder of the reality behind the premise of this book, and the suffering that still endures today.

A poignant novel which provides an accessible introduction to myth and ancient history through a modern lens.