Lucky, by Kathryn Para, is an unflinching novel set in the Middle East and Canada. It tells the story of Anika Lund, an ambitious Canadian freelance war photographer seeking to photograph an infamous terrorist, and her best friend and translator, Viva, whose husband disappeared in Syria. In the fall of 2004, they gain access to Iraqi resistance fighters, and entrance to the broken city of Fallujah, igniting a series of terrifying events. When Anika comes face to face with Zayid, the charismatic and violent Al-Qaeda extremist she's been seeking, things turn tragic. Once freed and back home in Vancouver, Anika suffers the effects of post-traumatic stress and wrestles with lingering questions about what really happened. Lucky explores the ideas of war as news entertainment for the West, the price paid by journalists and the moral dilemmas of love and conflict.

Kathryn Paraa is an award-winning, multi-genre writer with a MFA in Creative Writing from UBC. Her fiction, non-fiction and poetry have been published in Grain, Room of One's Own, Geist, Sunstream, and Vancouver Review. She is the 2013 winner of Mother Tongue Publishing's Search for the Great BC Novel Contest. Her stage play, Honey, debuted in 2004. She has also written, directed and produced short films. She lives in Gibsons, BC. Lucky is her first novel.

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