The night of the second of August

Before the earthquake of the invasion of Kuwait struck at dawn, the threads of the night of August 2, 1990 were gathering randomly and spontaneously, inconspicuously, without any hint of a major event. In Baghdad, Strindberg's play "Miss Julie" was being performed that night in the Rabat Hall. In an old room of a house in Bayaa, termites were sprouting between the bookshelves, and the scent of white oil was a futile treatment. That Christmas night coincided with the tenth day of Muharram in...