Women on a Journey: Between Baghdad and London (Modern Middle East Literature in Translation Series) (Paperback)

by Haifa Zangana (Author), Judy Cumberbatch (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Exiled, displaced, tortured, and grieving—each of the five Iraqi women whose lives and losses come to us through Haifa Zangana's skillfully wrought novel is searching in her own way for peace with a past that continually threatens to swallow up the present.

Majda, the widow of a former Ba'ath party official who was killed by the government he served. Adiba, a political dissident tortured under Saddam Hussein's regime. Um Mohammed, a Kurdish refugee who fled her home for political asylum. Iqbal, a divorced mother whose family in Iraq is suffering the effects of Western economic sanctions. And Sahira, the wife of a Communist politician, struggling with his disillusionment and her own isolation. Bound to one another by a common Iraqi identity and a common location in 1990s London, these women come together across differences in politics, ethnic and class background, age, and even language. In narrating the friendship that develops among them, Zangana captures their warmth and humor as well as their sadness, their feelings of despair along with their search for hope, their sense of uprootedness, and their yearnings for home.

Weaving between the women's memories of Iraq—nostalgic and nightmarish—and their lives as exiles in London, Zangana's novel gives voice to the richness and complexity of Iraqi women's experiences. Through their stories, the novel represents a powerful critique of the violence done to ordinary people by those who hold power both in Iraq and in the West.

Product Details

• Paperback: 226 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press (April 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 029271484X
• ISBN-13: 978-0292714847
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,381,482 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A vivid, involving and literary set of experiences , September 7, 2007

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

WOMEN ON A JOURNEY could easily have been featured under Fiction, as it's a collection of short stories, but it's reviewed here as a key set of insightful stories which bring to life the complexity and social angst of Iraqi women's experiences. Through their stories of violence, family and danger the region's history, culture and women's issues comes to life, making for a vivid, involving and literary set of experiences highly recommended for college-level holdings strong in Middle Eastern studies and literary works.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch