Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Girl Made of Dust
    A Girl Made of Dust
    A Girl Made of Dust
    Ebook247 pages3 hours

    A Girl Made of Dust

    By Nathalie Abi-Ezzi

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    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to the shifting contours within her household: hardly speaking and refusing to work, her father has inexplicably withdrawn from his family in favor of his favorite armchair; her once-youthful mother looks so sad that Ruba imagines her heart must have withered like a fig in the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).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateJul 13, 2010
    ISBN9780802199881
    A Girl Made of Dust
    Author

    Nathalie Abi-Ezzi

    Born in 1972 in the Metn region of Lebanon, Nathalie and her family moved to England in 1983 when Israel invaded Lebanon. She won the Radio 4 Dotdotdot short story competition in 2001. She is the author of 'The Double in the Fiction of R.L. Stevenson, Wilkie Collins and Daphne du Maurier' (2003) and has co-edited various books for Usborne.

    Related to A Girl Made of Dust

    Related ebooks

    Cultural Heritage Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Mar 1, 2024

      I was trying to look a little less like myselfand more like other humans, humans who belonged, so I put on a skort.Purchased in another life, when I had a husband and wrote thank-you notes and held dinner parties,the skort even had its own little poc

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Ruins

      Aug 5, 2021

      The Ruins
      6 min read

    • Article

      Life Beyond Zoom

      Dec 3, 2020

      Life Beyond Zoom
      7 min read

    • Article

      Carrot Legs

      Sep 12, 2019

      Carrot Legs
      20 min read

    • Article

      The WITCH GIRL

      Oct 20, 2021

      The WITCH GIRL
      6 min read

    • Article

      THE HOUSE with the BLUE DOOR

      May 7, 2020

      THE HOUSE with the BLUE DOOR
      6 min read

    • Article

      Thirteen

      Jan 30, 2020

      Thirteen
      21 min read

    • Article

      The White Fox

      Oct 13, 2017

      The White Fox
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Portrait

      Mar 1, 2018

      I WAS BORN almost completely deaf, and by the time I was seven I had already become a prisoner to my education. In the morning, I had speech therapy and tutoring with Mr. Bishop. We sat at my family’s long dining-room table, which was always covered

      9 min read

    • Article

      The Beyoğlu Municipality Waste Management Orchestra

      Jun 8, 2021

      Selim the half-wit hoarded everything—that was the story they told me my first day in waste management. Selim had lost his wife, and I guess everyone figured he took up hoarding as a way to fill the void. It started out with stuff his wife might have

      24 min read

    • Article

      The Middle Field

      Jan 16, 2024

      The Middle Field
      4 min read

    • Article

      Estella’s Fate

      May 17, 2023

      Estella’s Fate
      7 min read

    • Article

      Red Kite Grey Shadow

      Nov 3, 2022

      Red Kite Grey Shadow
      6 min read

    • Article

      Blackberries

      Apr 5, 2023

      Blackberries
      24 min read

    • Article

      Estella’s Fate

      May 17, 2023

      Estella’s Fate
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Traveler

      Oct 1, 2020

      The Traveler
      7 min read

    • Article

      Ariadne’s Thread

      Oct 18, 2023

      Ariadne’s Thread
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Periodic Stranger

      Mar 2, 2017

      My roots are in a hilltop village west of Matera, where rabbit and boar run riot in the fields. Figs, apricots, and pears hang in heavy clusters, at eye-level and within easy reach. There, the local girls are famous for their calves, made firm and st

      21 min read

    • Article

      The Periodic Stranger: When exile becomes home.

      Dec 12, 2013

      My roots are in a hilltop village west of Matera, where rabbit and boar run riot in the fields. Figs, apricots, and pears hang in heavy clusters, at eye-level and within easy reach. There, the local girls are famous for their calves, made firm and st

      21 min read

    • Article

      The Witch GIRL

      Oct 24, 2023

      The Witch GIRL
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Family Plot

      May 7, 2020

      The Family Plot
      10 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Coming Of The Tempest

      Sep 22, 2022

      The Coming Of The Tempest
      9 min read

    • Article

      Tiny Truths

      Oct 15, 2021

      We hiked the Kittatinny Ridge, clambering over rock. Above us streamed a thousand hawks, called south again. Age has chopped the world into segments by distance, each segment viewable with a different pair of glasses. We sang together in the darkness

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Way Back Home

      Apr 30, 2022

      Morning light in Sydney has a quality of powdered gold, spilt celestial talcum. It gets up the nose. The streets seem to have nothing to think about other than parking and shopping, violence a concept from another hemisphere. The calm seems deliberat

      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Girl Made of Dust

    3.5/5

    44 ratings7 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      SEPTEMBER 2010. Beautifully written fiction with the tragic impact of the Lebanon-Israel 1982 civil war told through the eyes of a 10 year old girl. Such strength of spirit and strong family values displayed by the some of the characters. Very refreshing.
    • 4/5
      Told through the eyes of 8-year-old Ruba, this is the story of one family trying to survive in 1980s Lebanon as the country is being attacked by Israel. This is a story of lost innocence, religious prejudice, violence, and family ties. The book starts out slow, but if the reader is patient, the book picks up about a third of the way through, and you begin rooting for this family to survive. Vivid descriptions of the war-torn countryside of Lebanon gives the reader many "feels like I'm there" moments.
    • 3/5
      Synopsis: Set in Lebanon, 8 year-old Ruba is forced to grow up quickly during the 1982 Israeli invasion. Her father refuses to open the shop and instead sits in his armchair all day, her 10 year-old brother Naji has been acting suspiciously and hanging out with tough older boys and many of her classmates have fled the country. My Opinion: This is one of those books that does not focus solely on a plot - instead it tells of the day-to-day life of Ruba. It is a quick read and gives an interesting perspective of war from the point of view of an 8 year-old.
    • 4/5
      Child's perspective mirroring individuals looking at the big political perspective. Narrowly Ruba's POV, so the picture we get of those around her shifts over the book, and things skip around based on what's important to a ten year old.Neither this, nor the pure lyricism of the language, hides the horrors of the war that's lapping closer and closer to Ruba's home, but almost all of it's so inexplicable to her, and the things that really terrify her - her brother getting shot, say - resolve positively, so the overall book is quite a peaceful, hopeful read.Very evocative and rich, beautiful language, strong and sometimes unexpected images, works in unfamiliar vocabulary almost seemlessly (I'm not sure if I'd have noticed the 'use Lebonese word, later in para gloss in English' structure to that if I hadn't edited.) Made me want to go and read up more on the conflict in order to get a clearer idea of the world around this story, and also the about the author - this felt quite biographical.Not my usual genre, but an enjoyable book.
    • 4/5
      This is a beautifully written novel that is, I think, suitable for both children and adults. The author is able to show the horrors of war without compromising the authenticity of the child's narrative voice -- and that's a very delicate balancing act. She was also able to let the reader know what was going on without being overly didactic -- I know NOTHING about Israel's invasion of Lebanon, but I could get just enough from this book to be able to understand the story, and it made me curious to learn more.
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      This is told through the eyes of the young girl of the family. She doesn't always understand what she is seeing, and there's a lot to take in, the family dynamic and the encroaching war. There's a lot to untangle, and I think that the impact of war as both an ever present background and an added complication to growing up is very well portrayed. Things that seem incredible are everyday, as that's just the way life is. The escalation of violence is quite startling, and yet the humanity with which people face it is heartwarming. At the end things have changed, in some ways for the better, despite the situaiton not having improved.

    Book preview

    A Girl Made of Dust - Nathalie Abi-Ezzi

    dbook_preview_excerpt.html\ےƑ Ӯ4eYlX>"Y" p'þ?_ql=& ̓'/o.՛q*?&v_)/}l||^Cy+Fc0>I|=5<7tԜ\S#:3>m~Sh%#>2kB_6 c.Mh~j6-6#ɽ1c͡X9aX)Nz/ П ;mfgb%1?rZax3%]sKӥI`i.}mG| ^rR_WIB~cs̷I'쩽Kΐ-xc R|h-xjgd,pS۱a P6K(sG>M1'F|qkX567'Gd|Ct|LOTPAጡnӘS 4 cth-\riĜ/4ic6?k.Xi SH6p ==v}Qgbh RqjaМ}YڷGY,  ehA KN  D">(LzMҜo6M-9%)fAD};9=g۳>OS蟵ʽDnPdMt2]2 $܏o[}٨S)ހџ@.΍uNQxk\ĠTDlsm=[{̋R~FG C{qMcLJiog΀݇Fk8M‰`Gc~(뎯^4,^R8m׸3ugB,)[0l͘8]k!MAV4RgПƻ&Y"L'մy#,aizxyPOv=BS}󫀪daz)Cؙ/qDiDB (c0glyZ`i-!c ن2:K[Hؚ2n2ʾZMuf"k 7nD ,[8-1&^ͫ=(Yq{VVyXN| on xeKId ]~΅i^$yq*N`fMr+$ۖձTڎ>8:q/T^YSCvG'k=ISecI'3 &bt/#)FJ58V u٦dB!"qcjTJ.<|-2dI{F 8 )>qhN`dҤt<ώBHC \ࣞJMG ^i/ؠ݇;#qZR_rԹ|\0m~=KQ.ax#TyW?_hrO̱9yKǀj~%!̣g.)r|;8 fzbʼn&bK|rI ݚ AE ׉"ٷ;*jcy68 5xi`IGgƉaF08'z㳷k%Co1l9w,d+;Zթ)~JJ'E@R||/Ʈ/؂=|!DT}>ޝK V9C -as S̀BxCÅZ`k EKCB4LˢϞS-^O_ld& O?KCdpY&jz2c6ϐ[VFu~JᐅTT;dcfR58?b<l4vCKX/7ͯsy~ Hs*hJ].LawojHq8ogG StTz[bϸܰQx}(xx4IrAGyx!EMMx5CiDxrshxx(</?HF!¸2Of!>|L88rzMT|jSd&ȧNt4LC]R4^(`0HpeRsE}7 @a!SPkzaVx_a) ?,CTWF1k!W۹`̈2ȃ)N^pTJ3X)[Heh˹|yxd Z*H] b&hT#`Pp~IW˒e@lP/y#mzf5;u%J -&r Ht9\[T:0c;~L #l{e@sr;h±Ϸ<_orAB7y[r-F S^b}=~;9{TrTO vnkHjd#BZrar&٦ӴPDZf$$(aLS^T R cde.zQEY ~S3 <P/ixV$3,u̶"j T6.>rTbmoNژjS06hv|"?xvtZeyAv&)o-+Pz7Գ8EN#/%/(&zyJBw2@~(t/x8l {r,٣>ޕPLtu[6gcgn:(|)ClG߼lpS=\*%F7fdAíudZ|o_CtO şel7sΣU]*V"`܄ PRw-Y+f F5&4NK^>GHu05 a3겼K3DP^,;zJ{U4Vc=k@ܦӃ"]xxMe\{T*K3!kN8$'ͪ挖Ƕ'_<r YQGY?d> zΘcadtWX [CAFT_ҊZ%R7Zu;m6/2aj7`fX\ݒ[S֛& (nf7t`Y۰~^JKo ݕka^3zEltҿWޭbW%[ͥFCVw2c=>U(1㫲Q|M~IBm ?UgF^8hɜr?+DƁ!r9\ }l,B%j!*)+qALAY=a2yH?amYגa޷8ba}쭊m y3֒V#SԞ2H&7JާfKf'U$^ax|˜O9x yfӶcHd/<̃l l0J6zNGZT1Mx%ds 3\#T*E3i0o/ TLVJR2uo;O:w0̔2T jSK鰵-qweJ&F(47o1V k(sf%n<'ZWHb8RX^\stm?̝f.KTQ/_=> PyW#22-Qݱ^nشwJ7AU0~YDh.v{oey\xx_2T\ژ絟 -6%5oJKed^;NT~Hè3%ՠFvQrDK_b80g:ps^B{wWl`q3Ng$Lx!9GQp,foy:m\}VvV{"cOkGU a%J@qE~:-e"0&j{Tvtx;Ɉ%rs2_|Wi-V?^Q7Zxwyأ"[|m\ޓ3ې/0_KFx.QH2iPcH*sZԆFD G$zijKbukuSí7zG1\UE jl9{HޗSR /p l>#_5񽈣Lqb!kXs;S)kG@:7Gt<<-ع,x{C4pt]Os&^ŵ ژb6BkmT%}kb]9J-OpJ60;miӏПHTwu IR٣s\\RT:҂r,AYuޘTqizUbVJ6_Ar7} "Bo|srWZ|E[ze*3nێiG `9Y;3^[YUMSf08x.p<k{qⴭSGvtR^+Vt}F0:o[ Z \õ {Ɓ 3$Q]&v#YȴUTqŨ"mKXN^._Kzh`{UR++)ұ*@8_yZip4X%Wc1`POrom[[0m+vܩJץ, #/QYۯ픪Dؤ;3/) ](&W0\-%ִԶ^tūɽ*s;k^6 )Ş 'kތSrs(5\׽ښ 6)^4,9B6b vl^YdJfgr&R!=Įu͝bO6c+My+>THrI}͹PY°-5P }6Vy,Q#ͅdVo )c(.zOsGew\hy>-ת󉠛֮fJ2],.ֶZ=Q7ylQiM'>d[TahKs 0Y9e Oo,?^?.w3oNƩ֞gUm7B뽵 J7i`΀iq[J#Y{]+eVkg!xϒ$l:j2$7¸{ $8햓2:;ol?=:5cz15lOe~ʈWw͎kkOf鍗KCfԻT"؛qGwFjUX7@~ k͛=:>#2#rfχ u`3z/$e+٥6՞[oBbv\k+ZT Mmx$[sGpi=OdߌsZ$^sMglh]"~C/XKEkNгXX6\-ty%J!'˾YM:cFҶQZMcp?5NzϝK1Vm]{o wjsC˶J`GR­2̥6|_麬kCjrӐ@-)] I򯭵A!γaXGC9 [rg,Բ8b\y0ZRp{py5{]W>o41Q/_ t"YVU ˥y>eViHuW'6ƖO^;ydYJQ1ϛ1ԯ;zuтe@,V,l<ʇC?{xKftJ)9Khq{XK:@ ddDnyݗvyD;ZDj1 )tƻ65_}EJDov9 Xbq26"P֔#<ڶ+K )[nX %wW F^9XrI --e 5qi^97FU[\*P'>En_f IM@%'y,˵z's$ ^?gRcJ *U%{1~1; S3Mִpj㦳חWr<춁ǒl(T8[G
    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1