A girl made of dust

By Nathalie Abi-Ezzi

Subjects: Fiction, coming of age, Fiction, family life, general, Fathers and daughters, Fathers and daughters, fiction, Fiction, History, Lebanon, fiction

Description: 1980s Lebanon. Eight-year-old Ruba lives in a village outside Beirut. From her family home she can see the city's buildings and hear the rumble of shelling. As civil war tears the country apart, Ruba has her own worries - while her mother toils and struggles for money, her father avoids work and family. When Ruba decides that she must save him, she uncovers a secret which sets her on a journey from childhood to the beginnings of adulthood. But Israeli troops invade Lebanon; danger comes ever closer, and Ruba realises that she may not be able to keep her family safe.