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Book Jacket WAITING FOR AN ORDINARY DAY
The Unraveling of Life in Iraq
FARNAZ FASSIHI
SUMMARY  |  EXCERPT   |  QUOTES
A Wall Street Journal correspondent's wrenching portrait of ordinary Iraqis, their lives possessed by "the genie of terrorism chaos and mayhem" unleashed by the American invasion

Since 2003, Iraq's bloody legacy has been well-documented by journalists, historians, politicians, and others confounded by how Americans were seduced into the war. Yet almost no one has spoken at length to the constituency that represents Iraq's last best hope for a stable country: its ordinary working and middle class.

Farnaz Fassihi, The Wall Street Journal's intrepid senior Middle East correspondent, bridges this gap by unveiling an Iraq that has remained largely hidden since the United States declared their "Mission Accomplished." Fassihi chronicles the experience of the disenfranchised as they come to terms with the realities of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. In an unforgettable portrait of Iraqis whose voices have remained eerily silent—from art gallery owners to clairvoyants, taxi drivers to radicalized teenagers—Fassihi brings to life the very people whose goodwill the U.S. depended upon for a successful occupation. Haunting and lyrical, Waiting for An Ordinary Day tells the long-awaited story of post-occupation Iraq through native eyes.

Farnaz Fassihi is the deputy bureau chief for Middle East and Africa for The Wall Street Journal, now based in Beirut, Lebanon. She joined the Journal in January 2003 and was immediately sent to Iraq. Her family is Iranian-American; she has degrees in English from Tehran University and in journalism from Columbia University. Prior to joining the Journal, she was a roving foreign correspondent for the Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., and a reporter for the Providence Journal.

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HARDCOVER
ISBN 978-1-58648-475-0
Pub date: 09/08/08
Price: $26.00/27.95 Canada
5 1/2 x 8 1/4
304 pages
Carton Quantity: 24
Current Events, Memoir
Selling Territory: W
Rights: British Commonwealth, Translation, Audio, Electronic Rights: PublicAffairs
First Serial, Performance Rights: Sterling Lord Literistic

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