Return To Ruin

Return to Ruin

This volume of exiles' accounts "[uses] the stories as springboards to discussing Iraqi history, politicization, and diasporic experiences in depth" ( International Journal of Middle East Studies). With the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Iraqis abroad, hoping to return one day to a better Iraq, became uncertain exiles. Return to Ruin tells the human story of this exile in the context of decades of U.S. imperial interests in Iraq—from the U.S. backing of the 1963 Ba'th coup and support of Saddam Hussein's regime in the 1980s, to the 1991 Gulf War and 2003 invasion and occupation. Zainab Saleh shares the experiences of Iraqis she met over fourteen years of fieldwork in Iraqi London—offering stories from an aging communist nostalgic for the streets she marched since childhood, a devout Shi'i dreaming of holy cities and family graves, and newly uprooted immigrants with fresh memories of loss, as well as her own. Focusing on debates among Iraqi exiles about what it means to be an Iraqi after years of displacement, Saleh weaves a narrative that draws attention to a once-dominant, vibrant Iraqi cultural landscape and social and political shifts among the diaspora after decades of authoritarianism, war, and occupation in Iraq. Through it all, this book illuminates how Iraqis continue to fashion a sense of belonging and imagine a future, built on the shards of these shattered memories.

RANN 2

Messala

A brilliant sequel to Ben-Hur -- a colourful, compelling tale of love, ambition, and faith, set in ancient Rome. In the original novel of Ben-Hur, Messala is seriously injured in a chariot race with his boyhood friend, Ben-Hur -- who had been imprisoned, based in part on Messala's mistaken accusation that he had tried to assassinate the Roman procuator of Judaea. Now, in this sequel by Lois Scouten -- complete with another chariot race in a harrowing incident of road rage -- we follow Messala, witnessing the collapse of his once-passionate romance with Iras the Egyptian, his subsequent journey to health, his fluctuating fortunes in Roman society, and his attraction to various Roman beauties before he finds marital contentment in a new love. And we experience the tension Messala feels between loyalty to his own Roman heritage and his growing interest in the new religion of Christianity.