'Baghdad Noir' Presents A City Of Diverse ExperiencesBaghdad Noir By Samuel Shimon Purchase BookPurchase close overlay Buy Featured Book Your purchase helps support NPR programming. The latest entry, Baghdad Noir, edited by Samuel Shimon, identifies neighborhoods and places in which the stories happen, with a frontispiece map showing city districts. Sponsor MessageAmong them these writers encompass, if not a Baghdad entire, then at least a Baghdad of diverse experiences and perspectives, and absolutely a Baghdad focused on the Arabic world and not the Western. "While all Iraqis will readily agree that their life has always been noir, the majority of the stories in Baghdad Noir are set in the years following the American invasion of 2003," writes Shimon. That these writers have wrested surprise from a country with so little peace makes Baghdad Noir one of the most interesting of the lot.