Pieces of Me

Author/Guide: Natalie Hart

Why a Booktrail?

2000s: Can you ever really escape the memories and nightmares of war?

ISBN: 978-1787198036
Genre: Fiction

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What you need to know before your trail

Emma did not go to war looking for love, but Adam is unlike any other.

Under the secret shadow of trauma, Emma decides to leave Iraq and joins Adam to settle in Colorado. But isolation and fear find her, once again, when Adam is re-deployed. Torn between a deep fear for Adam’s safety and a desire to be back there herself, Emma copes by throwing herself into a new role mentoring an Iraqi refugee family.

But when Adam comes home, he brings the conflict back with him. Emma had considered the possibility that her husband might not come home from war. She had not considered that he might return a stranger.

Locations

Reset

Iraq - Baghdad
C: International Zone

Travel Guide

Baghdad

When we first meet Emma, she is the wife of a man who wants to go back to war. They met during war time but this is different.

“I know what it is to leave, I do not know how to be the person who is left behind.”

And here are the two sides of the story. What it feels to go to war, and what it feels to be the person who is left behind. The war doesn’t just happen in the war torn areas of a far-flung distant land. It happens in the homes and hearts of men and women,and children across any country, in any city in any street.

Baghdad

“At night he treads the streets of Baghdad”.

Emma used to work in the International zone in Baghdad as an administrator and has a dangerous job as she has to interview people who feel they are in danger and sos need refugee status in the US. She helps those in the army too and helps them to stay safe. Her job might not be physical but it’s emotionally draining.

“Baghdad was all boundaries and barriers, compounds and checkpoints.”

Colorado, USA

Back home in Colorado, Emma has to fight a new war and keep her emotions in check. She has to deal with living a new life in a new country with her husband miles way and in grave danger. She knows exactly what that danger is so it’s probably worse than not knowing anything at all. A British woman displaced herself, she now finds refuge in her neighbourhood with friends and contacts from all different backgrounds who can help each other through this emotional minefield.

The climbs, the hikes here help her to get out her anger, her energy and her emotions as the hikes are hard and strenuous.

Booktrailer Review

Susan: @thebooktrailer

What a powerful and moving read!

We all think we know what war is like, how families are separated and how families must have to cope when their loved ones go away. But this story was particularly interesting as you got to experience the emotions and feelings of a woman who met her husband in a war zone and then became the person he left when he went back to war without her. It’s always worse when you are the one left behind – even if you’re just travelling or moving away it’s always harder for those who stay behind. Add to that the overwhelming knowledge of the dangers of a war zone and…well this is quite the emotional tug on the heartstrings!

I felt very close to Emma in the novel and felt her pain even though I’ve never been to a war zone. She was strong and confidant but knew too much of the dangers her husband would be in. Interesting that she became the helpless, emotional person in a constant state of flux and feeling displaced when she was the one helping displaced refugees in Iraq

So important a read on so many levels. Emotional is not the word!