Saleh, Zainab, Return To Ruin, Iraqi Narratives of Exile and Nostalgia, Stanford University Press: 2021
Return To Ruin, Iraqi Narratives of Exile and Nostalgia by Zainab Saleh is the story of Iraqi expatriates living in London. Saleh interviewed five Iraqi exiles from different backgrounds and experiences about their families, life in Iraq and how they ended up in England. She included her own story about exile as well. Their stories are by far the best part as Iraqi voices are rarely heard in Western books about Iraq. On the other hand this was based upon a thesis. That meant Saleh’s college advisor told her to link her interviews to a larger theory. She chose one about British and American imperialism that didn’t stand up.