Synopses & Reviews
Since 2003, Iraqs 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 Iraqs last best hope for a stable country: its ordinary working and middle class.
Farnaz Fassihi, The Wall Street Journals 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 silentfrom art gallery owners to clairvoyants, taxi drivers to radicalized teenagersFassihi 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.
Synopsis
A Wall Street Journal correspondents wrenching portrait of ordinary Iraqis, their lives possessed by the genie of terrorism chaos and mayhem” unleashed by the American invasion.
About the Author
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.