The White Zone – by Carolyn Marsden (2012)

This novel of young cousins living in Baghdad in 2003 reads like the nightly world news. First one part of the city is bombed, then another. Bullets come through apartment windows. The Muslim residents of the city are at war with each other. Sunni Muslims hate Shiite Muslims. Shiite Muslims hate Sunni Muslims. Families move from place to place.

Nouri and Talib are 10-year-old cousins who have grown up very close. But Talib has the misfortune of having one Sunni parent and one Shiite.