Bee Rowlatt is a London journalist working part-time for the BBC World Service and looking for an Iraqi woman to interview when she has a chance encounter with Baghdad-based English literature lecturer May Witwit.
The ‘meeting’ takes place via the Internet. Almost four years will pass before the women finally meet in the flesh.
Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad
It is during these years in between that we get to share in this amazing novel which is simply a compilation of the many emails that the women exchange as Bee struggles to juggle her career and motherhood, and May just struggles to survive a life that grows more dangerous and unbearable each day.
We follow Bee through the trials and tribulations of being the mother of three young girls, a life I would image many readers could relate to – sick children, workaholic partner, commitments to the Parents and Friends Association, part-time work etc.
May’s life, on the other hand, is something that most of us could only begin to imagine – exploding bombs, constant raids and threats, rations, friends and family murdered and the possibility that today you or your husband may not be the lucky ones.
North London is a long way from post-invasion Iraq but women are women no matter where they live, what their age, their culture or religion, and what is going on in their lives. That is the message that shines through in this book; what we want in this world is not so different from the next person. Peace, love, friendship, and the freedom to be who we are.
Jane Austen
As a professor of literature, May teaches Jane Austen to her students. She also has to teach human rights and likens this to trying to teach colours to the colour-blind.
Jane Austen is a literary hero for many lovers of English literature, no matter where they are in the world. For May’s students, the chance to escape into a world set 200 years ago where what people said and wore to the ball were the height of importance becomes a welcome break from the bombing and murders that go on around them. Even getting to university is a daily struggle for most.
50 Books You Can’t Put Down
Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad is one of the 2011 books to be included in the Australian pocket guidebook that offers a list of 50 recommended books to read.
The list includes adult fiction, both literature and popular, non-fiction, young adult fiction and books for children.
An initial list of 250 books was put together by an independent panel from the book industry, including authors, publishers, librarians etc and the final 50 were selected by members of the Australian Publishers Association, the Australian Booksellers Association and the Australian Society of Authors.
Sources
Rowlatt, B and Witwit, M (2010) Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad (Penguin Books, ISBN: 9780141038537, 368 pages.)
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