Alia Muhammad Baker is the librarian in Basra, Iraq.  For fourteen years, her library has been a meeting place for those who love books.  Until now.  Now war has come, and Alia fears that the library—along with the thirty thousand books with in it—will be destroyed forever.

In a war-stricken country where civilians—especially women—have little power, this true story about a librarian's struggle to save her communtiy's priceless collection of books reminds us all how, throughout the world, the love of literature and the respect for knowledge know no boundaries.

From the dust jacket