A Child of the Land of Beads is a series of autobiographical essays that moves between two versions of Baghdad’s Thawra al-Shaabiya district: the one before 2003 and the one that came after. The author asks how the subtleties of daily life have shifted, and how notions of love, faith and entertainment have been reshaped by time. Blending personal reflection with cultural observation, the project archives the lives of people shaped by two radically different political worlds.