{"product_id":"packaged-lives-ten-stories-and-a-novella-9780815611370","title":"Packaged Lives: Ten Stories and a Novella","description":"The carefully crafted, subtle, and humorous stories in \u003ci\u003ePackaged Lives\u003c\/i\u003e show Zangana at her best as a fiction writer. She portrays her subjects keenly, sensitively, and lovingly but without compromise. Iraqis living in exile come to life in her narratives as men and women who are caught between two worlds. They cannot return to their homeland and are forced to wait for news of Iraq from afar. At the same time, they are unable to fully adjust to life in Britain and make a new home for themselves. The question \"What is home?\" is at the heart of each story in this collection. Her protagonists, who are stuck in ready-made lives, or \"packaged lives,\" struggle to set themselves free from a web of relationships in which they are entangled. Art, poetry, and nature provide lines of escape. The relief may be fleeting, but the peace of mind and serenity are reached through the moment of epiphany at the end of each story, a much-needed balm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHaifa Zangana\u003c\/b\u003e is an Iraqi Kurdish writer and activist. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eWomen on a Journey: Between Baghdad and London\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eCity of Widows: An Iraqi Woman's Account of War and Resistance\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e Dreaming of Baghdad\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eParty for Thaera: Palestinian Women Writing Life\u003c\/i\u003e, among others. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eWen-chin Ouyang\u003c\/b\u003e is professor of Arabic and comparative literature at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She is the author of \u003ci\u003ePoetics of Love in the Arabic Novel: Nation-State, Modernity and Tradition\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003ePolitics of Nostalgia in the Arabic Novel: Nation-State\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eModernity and Tradition\u003c\/i\u003e. She has been working towards Arabic-Chinese comparative literary and cultural studies, including Silk Road studies.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Syracuse University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50444417073426,"sku":"9780815611370","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_3ee38e65-1aec-4b87-a645-032264c8543d.jpg?v=1729682564","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/packaged-lives-ten-stories-and-a-novella-9780815611370","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}