Book Revival Signals a Calmer Baghdad

Dusty books lie on flattened cardboard boxes on a sidewalk buried in litter and building debris. Their vendors hunch their shoulders and sip hot black tea to fend off the cold. What matters is that they’re here. The revival of the Mutanabi Street book market is a microcosm of today’s Baghdad. The ambitious facelift now under way on Mutanabi Street attests to a hope for better things now that violence in Baghdad is noticeably down.