Hussein’s Euphrates Dance is a masterfully imagined and brilliantly written story of the universal struggle to seek light in the shadow of dominant horror and tragedy

A native of Nasiriya, Iraq, Hussein Hussein immigrated to the USA after earning his BS degree at Baghdad University. Upon returning to Iraq to visit his dying mother, he was arrested and impressed into Saddam Hussein’s “People’s Army.” Treated like a slave for fifteen years, he was forced to fight an unwinnable war against Iran. Eventually, he was able to return to the USA where he had previously earned an MS degree at Marshal University (WV) and a PhD at Middle Tennessee State University. Now retired, he lives with his wife, a researcher at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.

— Noori Ali, editor-in-chief of the Germany-based Iraqi e-zine, Alakhbar

— Denise Crooks, Little Rock, Arkansas

— Philip Breen, Ph.D., University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas

— N. Zaman, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas