An unexpected visit from former British diplomat and family acquaintance Duncan Claybourne to Iraqi-British psychiatrist Mona Haddad in 2003 sets the scene for Elizabeth Loudon’s novel, A Stranger in Baghdad (Hoopoe Fiction, 2023). The reader is plunged immediately into intrigue with the possibility of revelation, only to discover the many intricacies which bind all of the characters together, each a protagonist in their own right, and all against a backdrop of British colonialism and its aftermath in Iraq. The book shifts back to 1937, when Mona’s mother, Diane, moves to Baghdad after marrying an Iraqi doctor, Ibrahim Haddad. British Diane is a misfit in both worlds: she challenges her own family’s stereotypical views through her marriage, while in Iraq she … Continue reading A Stranger in Baghdad