What really comes through and is startlingly refreshing are al-Jezairy's encounters with ordinary Iraqis . . . during the American occupation. Through them come all the extraordinary Iraqi stories that have been so hard for Westerners to capture all these years. Rageh OmaarIn 1979, journalist Zuhair al-Jezairy fled Iraq and certain death after openly criticizing Saddam Hussein's regime. Twenty-five years later he is back and cautiously celebrating the toppling of the hated Ba'ath Party. As editor of a newspaper, he breaks the Oil for Food scandal, disclosing the names of Arabs and Westerners who were involved, and is subsequently forced to resign. He then sets up a television company and travels all over Iraq, documenting the country's descent into sectarianism and hopeless violence, soon becoming a target himself. Al-Jezairy's firsthand accounts of the looting of Baghdad, the destruction of government buildings, and indiscriminate bombings present a searing, personal, and unique view of Iraq after Saddam Hussein. Zuhair al-Jezairy lives in Iraq, where he manages the country's first independent news agency, Voice of Iraq. He has published nine books, including two novels, in Arabic. John West is a journalist and a graduate in classics from Balliol College, Oxford. He has covered three wars in the Middle East as a correspondent for Reuters. | The Devil You Don't Know by Zuhair al-Jezairy, Paperback | Indigo Chapters