Baghdad Fixer

A journalist and her fixer struggle for the truth where truth is now a victim

Nabil al-Amari is an English teacher in Baghdad, in Saddam's Iraq, when a chance encounter with Samara Katchens, an American journalist covering the war, changes his life forever. It is April 2003 and American and British forces have recently invaded Iraq. Samara, or Sam for short, is ambitious, cynical and determined. Nabil is both fascinated and bewildered by her, and he's keen to show her things she doesn't notice in her rush to cover the news. She is pushed by her editor to seek concrete proof for a story concerning payments for false documents - a practice which breaks all journalistic codes of ethics - 'as if truth were so hard in that way, like rocks and concrete'. In Iraq it is rarely so. As Sam single-mindedly pursues this story, she discovers a chasm between her editor's expectations and the reality she faces in a city torn apart by war and conflicting loyalties. And in her determination to uncover the truth, she takes one gamble too many, endangering herself, Nabil and his family.

Ilene Prusher was a staff writer for The Christian Science Monitor from 2000 to 2010, serving as bureau chief in Tokyo, Istanbul, and Jerusalem and covering the major conflicts of the past decade: Iraq and Afghanistan. Her work has been published in many major US and UK newspapers, including The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Washington Post and The New Republic. She is now an independent journalist in Jerusalem, teaches Reporting Conflict for NYU-Tel Aviv, and runs creative writing workshops. Baghdad Fixer is her first novel.