New book released on life of Arabs in America
Chicago writer Fatima V. Mansour has published a new book called “Ruination.”
The book is about the “Issa Family” which settles on the southwest side of Chicago. The four Palestinian refugees turned American entrepreneurs have worked hard to establish themselves in this new community. They have become leaders in the Arab community, but also in the larger political machine in Chicago.
However, like all families, the Issas have skeletons, some of which they wish would stay hidden. They are determined to work through their issues of tradition and modernity, despite the tenuous political complications of a recent secession from the nation.
Ruination is a dystopian novel set two years from now, exploring the issues of military occupation and violence, disguised as a love triangle. Can Hayat and Aden find love in an arranged marriage? Can outcasts Noor and Ahlam find acceptance from their family? The novel explores all the issues any modern family faces–divorce, drug dependency, sexuality, teen pregnancy–but through the lens of an Arab American family struggling to accept a modern world.
Click here for a sneak peek at Chapter One.
Click here for a digital download is available through Kindle.
Click to purchase the book from Amazon.com.
Ruination, book by author Fatima V. Mansour of Chicago
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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