{"product_id":"i-who-did-not-die-9781682450116","title":"I  Who Did Not Die","description":"\u003cp\u003eKhorramshahr  Iran  May 1982It was the bloodiest battle of one of the most brutal wars of the twentieth century  and Najah  a twenty-nine-year-old wounded Iraqi conscript  was face to face with a thirteen-year-old Iranian child soldier who was ordered to kill him. Instead  the boy committed an astonishing act of mercy. It was an act that decades later would save his own life.  This is a remarkable story. It is gut-wrenching  essential  and astonishing. Its a war story. A love story. A page-turner of vast moral dimensions. An eloquent and haunting act of witness to horrors beyond grimmest fiction  and a thing of towering beauty. More importantly  it is a story that must be told  and a richly textured view into an overlooked conflict and misunderstood region. This is the great untold story of the children and young men whose lives were sacrificed at the whim of vicious dictators and pointless  barbaric wars.  Little has been written of the Iran-Iraq war  which was among the most brutal conflicts of the twentieth century  one fought with chemical weapons  ballistic missiles  and cadres of child soldiers.  The numbers involved are staggering: All told  it claimed 700 000 lives200 000 Iraqis  and 500 000 Iranians. Young men of military service ageeighteen and above in Iraq  fifteen and above in Irandied in the greatest numbers. 80 000 Iranian child soldiers were killed  mostly between the ages of sixteen and seventeen. The two countries spent a combined 1.1 trillion dollars fighting the war.  Rarely does this kind of reportage succeed so power- fully as literature. More rarely still does such searingly brilliant literaturefit to stand beside Remarque  Hemingway  and OBrienemerge from behind enemy lines.  But Zahed  a child  and Najah  a young restaurateur  are rare mennot just survivors  but masterful  wondrously gifted storytellers. Written with award-winning journalist Meredith May  this is literature of a very high order  set down with passion  urgency  and consummate skill. This story is an affirmation that  in the end  it is our humanity that transcends politics and borders and saves us all.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44430660698165,"sku":"ByrdShop_1682450112","price":34.79,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781682450116.jpg?v=1784689037","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/i-who-did-not-die-9781682450116","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}