A Brighter Fear

A beautiful love story and contemporary fairytale set against the backdrop of the Iraq war, this stunning and moving novel will break your heart, only to put it back together again…

This is the story of Lina, a teenage girl from Baghdad. It starts in 2003, as the bombs begin to fall on the city.

In it, Lina fights to survive, to find a life for herself amid the chaos of war, to find what happened to her mother in the years before the war, when she was taken away by the secret police. She also falls in love, with the one person she should never have fallen in love with.

It is many things. It is a love story, both for a country and for a person. It is about an amazing girl, growing up in the worst circumstances imaginable. It contains a necklace, that was lost but might still be found. And that is all we can say, without ruining this extraordinary and beautiful modern fairy tale…

Reviews

“Debut novelist Kerry Drewery skilfully and sensitively brings the devastating effect of the war on ordinary citizens vividly to life in this tragic, touching and romantic story set in Iraq.” – Julia Eccleshare, LoveReading4Kids

“This is a moving and ultimately uplifting story which provides teenagers with an insight into the human tragedies behind the headlines. Recommended reading.” – Families South West

About the author

Kerry Drewery lives in Lincolnshire. Active in Bookstart and the winner of a BBC writing prize, she was inspired to research and write about Iraq by the questions of her own children about the war.