The American Granddaughter

This excellent second novel from Kachachi (Stream of Hearts), winner of the Lagardère Award in France, centers on the experiences of an American-Iraqi translator during the U.S.-Iraq War. After fleeing Baghdad as a child, Zeina Behnam grows up in Detroit with her mother and drug-addicted brother. In Zeina’s late 20s, the September 11 terrorist attacks rock her Arab-American community. Motivated by a bewildering combination of patriotism, homesickness, and desire for economic security, Zeina joins the U.S. Army as an Arabic interpreter. In Iraq, she is assigned to Saddam Hussein’s birthplace, Tikrit, and operates from the ruins of one of Hussein’s palaces. She also arranges clandestine meetings in Baghdad with her Catholic grandmother, Rahma, Zeina’s only remaining family in Iraq. Lonely and aging Rahma is at first thrilled to reconnect with her granddaughter, but is horrified to discover Zeina’s role assisting the “occupiers.” As Zeina fights to preserve her relationship with Rahma—as well as her quickly-waning ideals of an American-liberated Iraq—she falls in love with Muhaymen, a member of the anti-American Mahdi Army. This is a fast-paced, insightful look at the Iraq War and the torn allegiances of American immigrants whose loyalties and identities are in two places at once. (Oct.)