Little Shepherd

The inspirational true story of one man’s escape to freedom to become a renowned surgeon.

Born and raised in poverty, Saleh Abbas struggles as a child shepherd through unimaginable hunger and hardships, but he has big dreams and refuses to accept his fate. Growing up in the arid heart of Iraq in isolation from the outside world, he is taught that getting a good education meant everything. Driven by compassion and the desire to help others, he makes it all the way to medical school.

Living through four wars, all under Saddam Hussein’s reign, Saleh sees his uncle imprisoned and narrowly escaping execution during the communist crackdowns. Then his brother, cousin and friends die in seemingly endless conflicts. Through all this Saleh tends the wounded and carries out life-saving operations in the most challenging conditions though he barely earns enough to survive.

Disillusioned and denied the opportunity to progress in his chosen field, he flees across the border to Jordan and on to Yemen, where he discovers a different sort of hell and is haunted by thoughts of the loved ones he left behind. After four years in Yemen, he emigrates to New Zealand, trying to assimilate into western culture while rebuilding his life and career. Later, after making a name for himself as a surgeon in Australia, he begins to heal the invisible scars of his past.

An unflinching and powerful memoir, plunging the reader into a netherworld of crooked secret police, military checkpoints and death squads. It provides a fascinating window into one of the most brutal totalitarian regimes of the modern era.Little Shepherd is a searing indictment of the horrors of war and a testament to the author’s tremendous resilience.