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A young woman comes of age in modern Iraq in this lyrical debut. The unnamed narrator recalls her early childhood on a farm in the small village of Zafraniya, outside of Baghdad. It is a mostly peaceful time in the country: the narrator attends the School of Music and Ballet in the mornings and her afternoons are spent playing among apricot trees. From the age of six, however, the conflicting values of East and West begin to disrupt her idyllic life. Her father, who works devising food flavorings and colors, is Iraqi; her mother is English and is not managing to adapt to the heat, the customs or her isolation. They argue constantly, and the narrator is aware that many see her as "the foreign woman's daughter." She is much closer to her father, who interests her in his work as she grows into adolescence. The family moves to Baghdad and the war with Iran begins soon after. Viewed mostly through the increasing changes in daily life rationing, travel restrictions and the dance school's closing the effects of war are juxtaposed against the girl's exposure to the beleaguered artistic community in Baghdad and her first love affair. The third section of the book shifts to England, where she travels with her ailing mother just as the Gulf War erupts. Khedairi writes with a certain distance and passivity that can be frustrating, but lovers of literary fiction will be pulled in by the poetic descriptions. Despite the aloofness of the narration, this quietly compelling story rings true. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

The overriding theme of this coming-of-age story is conflict between the young narrator's Iraqi father and her British mother, between her homeland, Iraq, and neighboring Iran, even between the novel's characters and their own bodies. While details bind the novel tightly to its geography, the infrequency with which the narrator's name is used (she is called "the girl" by her parents, "little one" by her first lover, and "my friend" by her dance teacher) makes the alienation and dissonance she experiences feel timeless and universal. However, the narrator rarely reflects on these conflicts and her place in them; she merely reports them. When she makes an instant decision to leave her homeland to accompany her ill mother to London, for example, even though she's in love and apparently at home in Iraq, she does not convey the thoughts behind her decision. Consequently, this first novel does not encourage empathy for the characters or convey the richness of culture that Ahdaf Soueif's The Map of Love (LJ 11/15/00) does, despite a similar theme. But librarians should be on the alert for the next novel by this author. For literary fiction collections or where there is a strong interest in fiction with Middle Eastern settings. Cheryl Van Til, Kent Dist. Lib., Spencer Branch, Gowen, MICopyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information