{"product_id":"9781501117855","title":"The Prisoner in His Palace: Saddam Hussein, His American Guards, and What History Leaves Unsaid","description":"In the haunting tradition of \u003ci\u003eIn Cold Blood\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Executioner’s Song\u003c\/i\u003e, this remarkably insightful and surprisingly intimate portrait of Saddam Hussein lifts away the top layer of a dictator’s evil and finds complexity beneath as it invites us to take a journey with twelve young American soldiers in the summer of 2006. Trained to aggressively confront the enemy in combat, the men learn, shortly after being deployed to Iraq, that fate has assigned them a different role. It becomes their job to guard the country’s notorious leader in the months leading to his execution.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLiving alongside, and caring for, their “high value detainee” in a former palace dubbed The Rock and regularly transporting him to his raucous trial, many of the men begin questioning some of their most basic assumptions—about the judicial process, Saddam’s character, and the morality of modern war. Although the young soldiers’ increasingly intimate conversations with the once-feared dictator never lead them to doubt his responsibility for unspeakable crimes, the men do discover surprising new layers to his psyche that run counter to the media’s portrayal of him.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eWoven from first-hand accounts provided by many of the American guards, government officials, interrogators, scholars, spies, lawyers, family members, and victims, \u003ci\u003eThe Prisoner in His Palace\u003c\/i\u003e shows two Saddams coexisting in one person: the defiant tyrant who uses torture and murder as tools, and a shrewd but contemplative prisoner who exhibits surprising affection, dignity, and courage in the face of looming death.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIn this artfully constructed narrative, Saddam, the “man without a conscience,” gets many of those around him to examine theirs. Wonderfully thought-provoking, \u003ci\u003eThe Prisoner in His Palace\u003c\/i\u003e reveals what it is like to discover in one’s ruthless enemy a man, and then deliver him to the gallows.","brand":"Scribner","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47145565290736,"sku":"9781501117855","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781501117855_p0.jpg?v=1763706889","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781501117855","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}