Keeping Literature Alive in Baghdad

The Washington Post has a great story about bookselling in Baghdad. Tragedy hit last year when a bomb exploded on Mutanabi Street, destroying bookshops and lives. One year later, the city's bookstores are opening once again.

From the story...

"We opened our eyes in this bookstore," recalled Najah al-Hayawi, 62, the eldest brother.

So enchanted was Nabil that he attended law school at night rather than miss working at the bookstore. He became one of Iraq's youngest judges. After their father died in 1993, the brothers inherited the shop and later opened their own bookstores.

After the U.S.-led invasion, freedom coursed through Mutanabi Street. Booksellers openly displayed Shiite religious texts, extremist Sunni Wahhabi literature and Western magazines depicting scantily clad women. Once, that would have brought prison sentences. But Iraq's growing chaos spawned disillusionment. The government imposed a Friday curfew. Sales plummeted. Many booksellers fled Iraq.