Late for Tea at the Deer Palace: The Lost Dreams of My Iraqi Family - Softcover

"An absorbing social history of Iraq. . . . A work of exile literature, beautifully written, rich with human detail as only personal family histories can be."--The New York Times Book Review

"One small way to rebuild a country after war may be to hold a picture of its true beauty, which is what Chalabi does."--The Los Angeles Times

"Fascinating. . . . Chalabi is a natural storyteller. . . . There are absorbing vignettes that describe everyday life in Iraqi high society as it has never before appeared in English. . . . An often beautiful and vivid but tragically belated book."--Ann Marlowe, The Daily

"It's an admirable endeavour to have Iraq addressed by someone who is in so many ways able to approach it from two worlds. . . . Tamara Chalabi has the stuff, in every sense, that is needful to undertake this."--Christopher Hitchens

"Chalabi reconstructs her family's past in novelistic scenes that demonstrate impressive scholarship."--The New Yorker

"A sweeping, enchanting memoir . . . Late for Tea at the Deer Palace deftly combines elements of history and memoir, but shines most when the author lets the characters' stories tell the history of Iraq."--The Associated Press

"A gripping and well-told saga. . . . An eye-opening account of the family's long history at the center of Iraq's royal court."--The Nation

“It’s an admirable endeavour to have Iraq addressed by someone who is in so many ways able to approach it from two worlds. . . . Tamara Chalabi has the stuff, in every sense, that is needful to undertake this.” —Christopher Hitchens

In the tradition of Jung Chang’s Wild Swans and Bhutto Benazir’s Reconciliation comes Tamara Chalabi’s unique memoir of returning to her family’s homeland, Iraq. In this epic story of one daughter’s journey through the annals of her family’s tumultuous history, Chalabi’s powerful voice and piercing vision illuminate her country and its people as never before.