Customer Reviews

A Girl Made of Dust

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A child narrator is a hard act to pull off, but it works very well here. Beautiful, small book about childhood, war, and family. It's very gentle given what's going on (the Israeli invasion of Lebanon), and Abi-Ezzi's voice is wonderful. It made me think a little of the film The Spirit of the Beehive, another version of a child surrounded by events she doesn't quite understand. The world of Maronite Christian Lebanon is lovingly described and explored, even as it's on the edge of shattering forever. And I thought the resolution, which really explored the implications of the title, worked perfectly.

I bought this more or less on a whim, and now I'm surprised it's not better known!

A Girl Made of Dust is set in Lebanon in 1982 during the Israeli Invasion. I enjoyed this coming of age story because of its simultaneously naive and wise protagonist, Ruba, and because I know so little of this country and the invasion. The plot line was simple, a family secret that is slowly explained and resolved during the course of the book, and the characters sweet. What intrigued me was the hints of conflict glimpsed only by the corner of the reader's eye: Maronites, Greek Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Sunni, Shi'a, and Druze all living cheek to jowl; the confusion by the Lebanese as to whether the Israeli invasion will help remove the Palestinian terrorists or simply cause unwanted war; the destruction of Beirut and the killing of civilians by both sides. These oblique topics intrigue me to read more about the history of the region, even though they are not the focus of the book per se.