cover image Waiting for an Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq

Waiting for an Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq

Farnaz Fassihi, . . Public Affairs, $26 (291pp) ISBN 978-1-58648-475-0

With the intriguing premise focused on the neglected citizens of occupied Iraq, Fassihi, the Wall Street Journal 's senior Middle East correspondent, gathered numerous interviews throughout the war-torn cities and religious strongholds of Iraq. The author first came to international attention when a personal e-mail chronicling the “rapidly deteriorating situation” in Iraq made its way onto blogs in 2004; in this book, written in the “same spirit” as the e-mail, she dissects the convoluted conflicts and connections that closely bind the two major religious groups jockeying for control in the occupied land. She talks to a wide range of people, from staid government personnel to fiery clerics to zealous students, about the country's unstable political and social climate. Fassihi, of Iranian descent, cajoles the normally media-shy working and middle-class people of Sulaimaniyah, Baghdad, Kirkuk and Tikrit to speak on the before-and-after conditions of their civil freedoms. Through these conversations, Fassihi posits hard political and moral questions. (Sept.)