A Girl Made of Dust by Nathalie Abi-Ezzi

“‘History is happening faster than we can keep up’, Papi was saying. ‘How many changes in allegiance? How many battles and struggles, one day with this group and the next with another? But for the person who lives here, time stands still.’”

Abi-Ezzi’s debut novel offers a childlike perspective on the brutalities of the Lebanese Civil War, one of the less-explored conflicts of the Middle East. Eight-year-old Ruba lives with her Maronite parents, brother, and grandmother in a hilly village near Beirut, their lives punctuated by shellings and air strikes. Ruba knows little about the logistical issues of the Beirut conflict, but notices how her once-warm and friendly family has become a collection of terse, tense individuals. Her father is an especially changed man, content to sit silently in his armchair for days on end, ignoring the family’s failing shop. Ruba’s mother cleans incessantly, her grandmother prays to a tiny bottle in the shape of the Virgin Mary filled with “holy water” for comfort and guidance. Ruba looks to her uncle Wadih for answers, a wealthy man in the midst of chaos, but only finds a decades-old mystery of unrequited love. Her brother Naji now prefers to take target practice with some older, rifle-toting teenagers instead of exploring the nearby forest with Ruba.

The young girl’s coming-of-age-in-wartime tale is a familiar trope, but Abi-Ezzi’s prose is what makes Ruba’s story so achingly poignant. Ruba’s perspective vacillates between honesty and innocence; she is alternatingly intrigued and confused by the realities of the war around her. When she hears of a public punishment taking place in Beirut, the following exchange between Ruba, Naji, and their parents display her incomplete understanding of the common atrocities in 1980’s Lebanon:

‘Is it true, Nabeel?’

He nodded. ‘Yes, they’re telling everyone.’

‘They’re going to drag a man behind a car!’ I said. ‘Papi, can we go up to the main road later and watch?’

He stared as though a scorpion had come out of my mouth.

Naji was standing behind me. ‘Uncle Wadih can take us.’

Mami turned away. ‘The child doesn’t know what he’s saying. Neither of them does.’

‘But Papi said they’re telling everyone—that’s so they can go and watch,’ insisted Naji. ‘Eveyone’s going to be there.’

‘They’re telling people so they can stay in their houses and pray! Only the dogs and cowards will be there, hooting and gibing.’ He sank down, tired, into his chair.

‘But Papi, it’s only a game,’ I told him.

Papi breathed heavily. ‘A game.’ He looked sick. ‘They want revenge for yesterday. Nobody’s to step out of the house.’ . . . His voice was tight. ‘Do you want to watch a man being murdered?’

I didn’t understand. Murdered?

‘But he’s a bad man,’ repeated Naji. He’s not like us.’

Papi laughed sourly. ‘Not like us? Ach, ya Naji, what have I taught you? He thought for a while. ‘Maybe this man’s like us and maybe he isn’t. He’s probably a prisoner and for sure not a Christian, but he’s a man. And they’re going to tie him to the back of a car in the next town and drag him all the way to Beirut. By the time they get there, if God is kind, the man’ll be dead.’”

Picture Ruba as a Lebanese Scout Finch, learning the realities of tolerance, racism, and bigotry in a confusing, troubled time. She befriends a young Muslim boy, despite the teasing of the gun-wielding teenagers, and is heartbroken when his family later flees war-torn Ein Douwra. Her early terror of the neighborhood “witch” leads to acceptance and understanding when she learns of their shared history, and an eerily silent classmate shows shadows of Harper Lee’s Boo Radley.

Abi-Ezzi’s ability to balance adult atrocities with childish wonder forms the backbone of this debut novel, a difficult feat for many authors to accomplish. Realizing that Abi-Ezzi and her family left Lebanon for the safety of England in 1983 gives greater gravity to fictional Ruba’s story. Another difficult task when writing about Middle Eastern conflicts, the author pays reverence to the religious creeds of her characters and those around them, but in no way becomes preachy or dismissive. I highly enjoyed A Girl Made of Dust, and look forward to future works by this tenderly tragic author.

Reviewed by Stephanie Turza

A Girl Made of Dust by Nathalie Abi-Ezzi
Grove Press, 2009
Cloth, 240 pp, $24.00
ISBN-10: 080211895X