Chronicle of the ash days by Louise Caron

Louise Caron was born in 1948. Doctor in neurobiology and biochemistry, she started, in 1983, an acting training at the theatre-school of Montreuil. This is his second novel, and it is very strong !

Summary of Chronicle of the Days of Ash

Baghdad, 2007. Naïm’s father is killed during an American military intervention. Upset, the young peaceful artist joins an armed band. His companion Sohrab, powerless, decides to accompany him in his quest for revenge. But Naïm’s doubts grow as Sohrab reminds him of the absurdity of his situation.

For his part, Niko Barnes, an American soldier, questions his commitment. He writes down his thoughts in notebooks where memories, doubts towards his hierarchy and guilt towards the Iraqis are mixed together.

The paths of the characters will end up being linked by the chance of events on which they have no control, absurd and brutal, because born of a war whose justice escapes all. What is an enemy? ? Can revenge call for anything other than equal violence in return ?

In the Iraqi capital devastated by war, we follow the destinies of two young Iraqis: Naïm, a pacifist artist, and Sohrab, his girlfriend, as well as Niko Barnes, an American soldier lost in this war, and whose paths will end up joining.

Naïm’s father is killed during an American intervention; from then on, events will follow one another with a cruelty and brutality of which the protagonists, believing to be the actors, will finally be the victims. We will follow their doubts, their anguish, their hopes sometimes in the middle of a chaos that spares no one, and where revenge will become a ruthless engine.

This book takes us by the throat, because the war is described to us without blush, without bias, but with an often cruel realism.

Louise Caron writes beautifully, her style is clear, and she describes with great clarity a situation that is sometimes quite complex. We are often close to the reportage or the documentary, so much its descriptions are precise.

The characters evolve in the complex mosaic of an Iraqi society adrift, between the wise and the foolish, where many questions are asked about traditions, religion, the status of women, family, love ..

In conclusion, Chronicle of the days of ashes is a magnificent novel that must be read. Find this book by clicking here.