This was a sad and unsettling book for the writing about animals and people alike. I liked the zoo keeper's commitment to his animals, but at times it felt like he cared about his animals than his family. Good personal experience of the changes in Iraq and the negative impacts on culture and the dark side of humanity. I feel like I would have enjoyed reading this book more outside of the craziness of the world. I think I wanted to read something more lighthearted and less heavy. Father of Lions was a good book to read but it was not good to read accompanied with wanting to have a more lighthearted book. It was weird because at one time people were going about their lives as normal until tragedy struck.