A Girl Made of Dust

A “beautifully written, lyrical . . . completely believable” prize-winning novel about a girl’s coming of age in war-torn Lebanon (Publishers Weekly).

In her peaceful town outside Beirut, Ruba is slowly awakening to the shifting contours within her household: hardly speaking and refusing to work, her father has inexplicably withdrawn from his family in favor of his favorite armchair; her once-youthful mother looks so sad that Ruba imagines her heart must have withered like a fig in the heat; and Ruba’s brother, Naji, is spending less time with Ruba than he is with older friends, some of whom carry guns.

In trying to salvage her family, Ruba uncovers a secret from her father’s past. It sends her on a journey far from the fantasies of youth and into a brutal reality where men kill in the name of faith and race, old wrongs remain unforgiven, and where nothing less than self-sacrifice and unity can offer survival. But as Israeli troops invade Beirut and danger moves ever closer, Ruba realizes that she alone may not be able to keep her loved ones safe. She must first save her father.

“Exquisitely affecting . . . page-turningly suspenseful . . . A Girl Made of Dust is equally gripping as a poignant family drama and as a visceral depiction of living with war literally crashing on your doorstep” (Words Without Borders). With its “delightful and precocious narrator [reminiscent of] Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird,” Abi-Ezzi captures both a country and a childhood plagued by a conflict that even at its darkest and most threatening, carries the promise of healing and retribution (Christian Science Monitor).