'Elegant, erudite, ambitious, inventive - a remarkable blend of research, imagination and first-hand experience.' Rory Stewart 'A sweeping and superbly written epic' Wall Street Journal 'A work of great ambition... an account that is informed, filled with insights and a cracking read too.' Peter Frankopan Iraq is where civilisation was born, where East and West have mixed and clashed since long before Alexander, and it was here by the waters of Babylon where Judaism was born and the Sunni-Shia schism took its bloody shape. Inspired by extensive reporting from the region and a decade...