Books like The prince of the marshes by Rory Stewart

Iraq, September 2003: six months after the US‑led invasion, the country is in anarchy—collapsing infrastructure, terrorist attacks, and a coalition ruling directly through the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Rory Stewart, a young British diplomat, is appointed the CPA deputy governor‑coordination for a province of 850,000 people in the southern marshlands. In cities such as Amara and Nasiriyah, Stewart and his colleagues face gangsters, Iranian‑linked politicians, tribal vendettas, and an Islamist insurgency. They navigate hostage negotiations, appoint Iraqi governors and police chiefs, repair devastated infrastructure, and ultimately hand sovereignty back to the Iraqi government in June 2004. Stewart’s insider account offers a rare glimpse of Iraq obscured from most foreign journalists and soldiers, raising questions about the project of state‑building in the twenty‑first century.

First publish date: 2006