When the Grey Beetles Took Over Baghdad

Born in Baghdad in 1954 and a refugee to Israel with her family in 1970, Yahia makes her impressive debut with this sharp recollection of the virulently anti-Semitic Iraq of the l960s through the eyes of a teenaged Jewish girl. Thirteen-year-old Lina identifies herself as Iraqi first, albeit a member of a minority, and is more curious than fearful about the word "persecution," often whispered in the Jewish community in the aftermath of the 1967 Six Day War. The definitions she learns won't be subtle: her older brother, Shaul, will be imprisoned for drawing a Star of David on a chalkboard; her father will lose his accounting job; and her swimming teacher and a schoolmate will be tortured and publicly executed on trumped-up charges by the new Baath regime. The only hope of evading the security police, who often drive gray Volkswagen Beetles, is to make the dangerous flight through Iran. As Lina's family gradually plans their escape, she experiences the whims and pangs of growing up, a first love, sibling rivalry. The novel's beginning feels choppy as the narrative jumps from scene to scene of Lina's early childhood, but the vividly realized detours enrich the reader's understanding of Lina's suffering at her country's betrayal. (Apr.)