April 2003. Saddam Hussein has been toppled from power and a coalition government is emerging from the rubble to rebuild Iraq. Joining the effort is Jeremy, an idealistic young American who speaks Arabic, but he is not the only one who wants to help. Soon a whole cast of characters descend upon Baghdad, competing to fill the power void and restore Iraq to its rightful place at any cost. A satirical portrayal of the first year of the occupation, Freedomization is a novel about making a difference, the corrosive nature of mistrust and how not everything can be solved with the right technique.
Satire is based on brutal honesty, and this is what this impressive fictional account of the first year of the US adventure in Iraq has to offer. This book affords a downright realistic glimpse of what in hindsight is a shocking experience. – Joost Hiltermann, Chief Operating Officer of International Crisis Group
Brought back many memories and… caught the vibe inside and outside the Green Zone better than anything else I’ve read. – Tom Parker, CTITF Adviser on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism at the United Nations
I am thrilled with it. It is more real than Emerald City or Assassin’s Gate. It feels like it felt. – Stephen Epstein, Foreign Affairs Officer at US State Department
When I say it triggered my PTSD, I mean that as a compliment. The sense of time and place were very real. The characterizations were good, and again, very familiar. […] A good story about a topic too often ignored. – Peter Van Buren, author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People
I thoroughly enjoyed it. […] It captures very well the level of mutual incomprehension and it certainly added an extra dimension to set the book amongst the interpreters where this aspect comes over at its sharpest, and often at its most poignant. […] A great achievement. – Charles Tripp, Professor of Politics at SOAS, University of London and author of The Power and the People: Paths of Resistance in the Middle East
Enormously entertaining. It reminded me of so many experiences in Iraq and was much better than those think tank types on the Green Zone. – Pepe Escobar, roving correspondent for the Asia Times and author of Red Zone Blues and Obama Does Globalistan
Freedomization is a remarkable novel, both more realistic and more hilarious than U.S. news coverage of the liberation of Iraq. I’m inclined to say it would be funny if it weren’t so tragic, but I can’t because it truly is uproariously funny. Maybe clear thinking will follow the laughter; it sure hasn’t followed anything else yet. – David Swanson, anti-war activist and author of War Is A Lie and War No More
