Book Review: Father of Lions by Louise Callaghan

 

Something a little different from what I usually read, but I was very interested when I read the synopsis. Spoilers ahead.

This non-fiction book recounts the events of a zoo in peril during the Islamic State's occupation of the city of Mosul. Abu Laith, the self-proclaimed "father of lions", does everything in his power to keep his animals safe during the war and occupation. However, this proves increasingly difficult as he himself becomes a wanted man.

Overall a very intriguing book. I really wanted to keep going. I haven't read much about the wars in the Middle East, so this is new ground for me, but it was an engaging read. I liked the author's writing voice and, above all else, Abu Laith's dedication to his family and especially his animals.

He doesn't have to care about them when he's in the middle of a war and his own family is also struggling, but he does so anyways. Despite being a wanted man, despite all the odds and even bombings sometimes, he continues to make trips to the zoo when he can to look after his animals, the most notable of which are three lions (named Mother, Father and their cub Zombie) and two brown bears (mother Lula and her cub). 

This is definitely a hard book to read sometimes, from the discrimination and misogyny the people face to the horrible conditions the animals are in due to the circumstances. Even if there wasn't any war, their enclosures still were far too small, but that aside they're just slowly starving to death and walking in their own filth as the occupation progresses because Abu Laith and the animal's other caretaker can't always access the zoo to look after them. That aside, even when they can, finding food for the animals is very hard. There's barely enough to feed the people of Mosul themselves, so imagine having to find enough food for both your family and enough to feed quite a few animals, including several predators which need many pounds of meat per day. When you do read this book, beware that there's a huge amount of animals suffering in here and it gets increasingly hard to read. Let's just say that most of the featured animals don't make it out alive.

So I really admire Abu Laith's dedication, his chapters were definitely the most engaging. We're also given the POV of a young man named Hakam (who ended up being the one to alert an Vienna veterinarian of the animal's conditions) and the vet himself takes over the last few chapters as the remaining animals are slowly recovering, before finally, after the occupation is over, being taken to safer places where they can live out the rest of their lives.

I liked reading all these POVs, however I kinda feel that Hakam's don't add all that much. He does play an important role, but he only ends up doing one key important thing in the entirety of the book (alerting the vet resulting in the animals being rescued). But his other chapters that show his life during the occupation do not add all that much and kind of feel like they're distracting from Abu Laith's story, which is the main event. If they had just given Hakam one or two chapters that show him in the pivotal moment of contacting the vet and maybe a little before and after, that would've been enough. Because the rest doesn't do much for the book, it just feels a bit distracting since it has very little to do with Abu Laith's struggles of keeping the zoo animals alive. 

However, this book was still very well-written and I was very much rooting for all the characters. Even Abu Laith's wife, who slowly but surely becomes fed up with her husband caring so much for the animals when his own family is right there, you do root for and you see where she's coming from. 

I definitely recommend you give this a read, but only if you can stomach a lot of human and animal suffering, as the book doesn't hold back in that regard. 

Rating: 4/5