** ADVANCE FOR SUNDAY, SEPT. 2 ** Iraqi painter Noori al-Rawi speaks in his Baghdad, Iraq studio, June 22, 2007. The sense of loss endured by al-Rawi since his hometown fell victim to the Haditha dam 20 years ago was compounded in the years since Iraq began its journey of death after the 2003 U.S. invasion. Yet, al-Rawi, now 87 and in waning health, is energized by the grief and sense of loss, determined to spend what's left of his eventful life writing a book that reminds Iraqis long after he is gone of the old Anah in Anbar, a vast province west of Baghdad that had until recently suffered much of Iraq's violence. "Memories of a Drowning Euphrates Town," will recount al-Rawi's days growing up in the ancient town in the 1920s and 1930s and a picture of the town and its people. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)