The Book Stall at Chestnut Court

Tony and Mira Roca sign Memories of Eden: A Journey Through Jewish Baghdad, a memoir based on writings by Mira's mother Violette Shamash, who grew up in pre-World War II Baghdad.  

The book describes a place where the diverse communities lived together in peace, and religious differences were respected. Among them was one group that could truly claim to be indigenous, as their ancestors had been brought into exile there a thousand years before Muslims arrived with the Arabic-Islamic conquest: the Jews. Their long and proud history meant that they were treated as equals, enjoying a way of life that hardly differed from ancient times.

Thursday, March 13th
at The Book Stall