New Memoir ‘Baghdad to Brooklyn’ Explores Resilience and Identity Across Continents
BROOKLYN, NY, UNITED STATES, September 25, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Laith Yousif, an engineer, refugee advocate, and
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BROOKLYN, NY, UNITED STATES, September 25, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Laith Yousif, an engineer, refugee advocate, and survivor of worlds both torn and rebuilt, proudly announces the release of “From Baghdad to Brooklyn: An Ordinary Journey Through Extraordinary Times.” This poignant memoir captures a personal odyssey through war, immigration, and assimilation, reframing the narrative of refugees as one of humanity, endurance, and hope.
Born and raised in Baghdad, Yousif unveils an Iraq rarely seen in Western portrayals — a vibrant society of ordinary families navigating life under the constraints of dictatorship, years of conflict, and grueling economic sanctions. His story follows his departure from Iraq in 1998, a professional assignment in Dubai, and his eventual immigration to the United States, only months before finding himself working inside the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Surviving one world’s collapse while haunted by the ruins of another, Yousif explores the long shadows cast by displacement and his eventual passage from exile to citizen.
Described as “a poignant, personal chronicle of an Iraqi immigrant’s experiences in the U.S.” by Kirkus Reviews, this gripping, 18-chapter memoir weaves together three landscapes – Baghdad, Dubai, and New York – while carrying its central message through each thread, reminding readers that identity and hope persist, even in the face of impossible odds. Yousif recounts the resilience of Iraqis living through unrelenting war and sanctions, his surreal experience inside the grieving heart of America post-9/11 as an “other” suddenly viewed suspiciously, and the arduous path through U.S. asylum bureaucracy, advocating for himself while later extending hope to others.
Interspersed with humor and insight, this poignant memoir challenges Western stereotypes of refugees and humanizes geopolitical trends often reduced to faceless data.
“Baghdad to Brooklyn” (ISBN: 9798950391057) is available through major retailers, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The paperback retails for $19.99, and the ebook retails for $7.99. Review copies and interviews with the author are available upon request.
From the Back Cover:
Iraq is one of the worst-marketed countries on earth. Baghdad to Brooklyn is the memoir that offers a different version, not the war room view, not the palace view, but the daily life of an ordinary Iraqi who grew up under Saddam, survived a war, left everything behind, and reported to work at the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11th. It’s a story about what comes after the headline: years of asylum, reinvention, and eventually, a life built from scratch in Brooklyn.
About the Author:
Laith Yousif is an engineer, a refugee advocate, and a survivor of two worlds. Born and raised in Baghdad, he earned a Master’s in communication engineering, then left Iraq in October 1998 on a job offer in Dubai. Three years later he reached the United States and began working at a small insurance company inside the World Trade Center. He survived the September 11 attacks, and then spent years in asylum limbo, separated from his family. He later spoke at the UN about the Iraqi refugee crisis and helped lobby UNHCR into opening an office in Baghdad to process internally displaced Iraqis — his own relatives among them. He appeared in Wind of Amal (2012), a documentary following the lives of three Iraqi refugees in the U.S. Today he is a U.S. citizen, author, doing stand-up comedy on his free time, currently living in Brooklyn with his family.
About Manhattan Book Group:
Manhattan Book Group (“MBG”), located on Broadway in New York City, is a registered trade name of Mindstir Media LLC. MBG is widely known as a premier hybrid book publisher. We have combined the best of traditional publishing with the best of self-publishing to provide authors with the “best of both worlds” in a sense. To learn more about MBG, visit https://www.manhattanbookgroup.com/
Michelle VanSledright
Manhattan Book Group
+1 800-767-0531
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