RETURN TO BAGHDAD:
An American Woman's Journey
by Cosette Marie Laperruque
and
Mary Alice Murphy
AUTHORS' BIOS
COSETTE MARIE LAPERRUQUE (left)
My life lies before you in this book. Until 1992 I was a wife and mother. At the age of 53 a restlessness seemed to overtake me. My husband, Obaid, traveled in the Middle East a good deal of the time and I found myself with too much time on my hands. Our married daughter lived in Saudi Arabia. No longer satisfied just to be at home involved with only social activities, I decided to enroll at the Carlson Travel Academy in Rockville, Maryland.
After graduation I worked in the Washington DC area in my new profession as a travel agent and consultant. In June of 1994 I decided to sell my home of eight years in Virginia and relocate to the town of Silver City, New Mexico. The many letters written by my parents to each other while my father was working at the copper smelter in Hurley only a short distance from Silver City drew me to this location.
I work out of my own home office through the wonders of advanced technology, which allows the agents a connection to our travel company, The Reservation Center, located in Agoura Hills, California. The travel calls I handle are 90 percent business-related. On September 11, 2001, our company called all agents to come online, and we worked all during the national crisis to help our fellow Americans return to their homes by any means. I felt proud to have served in this small way.
MARY ALICE MURPHY (right)
My journey with Cosette to write this book began one day when she attended the local writers' group, the Best Seller Society. She stood and said, "I have a story to tell about my marriage to an Iraqi general and about the trip I took back to Baghdad soon after the end of Desert Storm. I'm looking for a writer."
Immediately intrigued because of the years my family lived in Turkey and my love of the country and the people, I agreed to write her story.
Less than a year and a half later and three days before the Tuesday in September that changed the life of the United States of America, we finished the first draft of the manuscript.
Along with a loving husband and two wonderful daughters, I had the pleasure of living in both Indonesia and Turkey for a total of eleven years. This experience gave me a global understanding of people and how we are not very different in our varying human skins and cultures.
I write fiction and nonfiction and presently work as a stringer for the Silver City Daily Press where I also write a weekly column on the outdoors, "MAM's Musings." My articles have appeared in "Silver City Life," and I have recently written articles for "New Mexico Traveler." An award-winning photographer I have art and landscape photos hanging in several galleries. I have served as the editor of many newsletters.
SYNOPSIS
A tenth-generation American, Cosette Marie Laperruque moves to Baghdad, Iraq in 1957, and falls in love with a general and his country on the verge of revolution. Obaid Abdulla commands the royal bodyguard. Their marriage surmounts cultural and age disparities. After the Gulf War, Cosette, putting her life and citizenship at risk, returns to Baghdad to take money and food to Obaid's family.
EXCERPT
My mother made friends with everyone and soon became close to Alma, an Iraqi woman from an old Christian family. Alma was in charge of all the drapery in the houses at Daura refinery. Many times Alma mentioned this wonderful friend who worked in the palace as the aide-de-camp to the King. Her father, a judge, was a very good friend of the general. She considered him a very special man and she thought our family would enjoy meeting him.
We had resided in Baghdad no more than six weeks when Alma invited us to join her at a dinner party at the General's home. That's how she referred to him. And you know I suppose if I lived another fifty years, I would still remember that first meeting. A shy girl of only seventeen, I had had no exposure outside of small towns in Texas.
When Ubaid Abdulla al-Mudhayifi opened the door to greet us, I felt this was a man that I had known all my life, an instant recognition. When I looked into his eyes I recognized a very special person. His eyes are two colors, the iris is brown ringed by blue. They caught my attention as did everything about this noble gentleman. The friendship and kindness shining from him made me feel instantly at ease and so excited to meet him. I had a premonition that I would know him for the rest of my life.
I said, "Hello, General," and stuck out my hand. He took it in his warm grasp, which caused a wonderful sensation new to my experience. He smiled that wonderful smile of his. Instant rapport emanated from both of us