Fiction Middle Eastern & Arab American Muslim Hardcover E-book
The Age of Silence is a family saga, antiwar tribute to mothers in war zones based on real events set in Baghdad during the Iraqi-Iranian War and the Gulf War. Living between the hammer and the anvil of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship in Iraq, with a son missing in battle, and a huge fortune tearing her family apart, Bedria fights a battle in her own home that she cannot win. This family saga takes you behind the closed doors of a family living through war to tell how one mother struggles to keep her family together while confined by the silence the regime and culture impose on her. It is a tribute to the silent warriors in all war zones—the mothers.
“Haunting and redemptive. Compellingly told. The characters open windows for us on an unfamiliar world.”
– Karim Alrawi, award-winning author of Book of Sands
“A country at war, a family at war, and Bedria the mother in the middle fighting battles on all fronts. Al-Musalli’s eye for detail and evocative prose captures the brutality but also the beauty to be found in war zones. An often heartbreaking journey, but there’s also intense love and hope, and the chance to enter a zone few would dare. Ultimately, we admire Musalli’s courage to go there, the sure craft, and Bedria’s prayers for her children become ours for the world.”
– David Geary, playwright, screenwriter, author
“Through Bedria’s life and the interwoven fates of her family, The Age of Silence offers a powerful domestic lens on war, patriarchy, and survival, grounding vast political upheavals in the intimate language of kitchens, courtyards, prayers, and unspoken grievances. What emerges is a narrative of remarkable endurance: a woman’s quiet, often unseen labour holding generations together as violence, exile, and betrayal erode the foundations of both nation and home.”
– Douglas Whiteway, award-winning author
