For readers of Elif Shafak, Samar Yazbek’sPlanet of Clay, or Ahmed Saadawi’sFrankenstein in Baghdad,Dunya Mikhail’sThe Bird Tattoochroniclesa world of great upheaval, love and loss, beauty and horror, andwill stay in readers minds long after the last page.A powerful and sweeping novel set over two tumultuous decades in Iraqfrom the National Book Award-nominated author ofThe Beekeeper.

Helen is a young Yazidi woman, living with her family in amountain village in Sinjar, northern Iraq. One day she finds a local bird caught in a trap, and frees it, just as the trapper, Elias, returns. At first angry, he soon sees the error of his ways and vows never to keep a bird captive again.

Helen and Elias fall deeply in love, marry and start a family in Sinjar. Thevillage has seemed to stand apart from time, protected by the mountains and too smal