The Locust and The Bird, by Hanan Al-Shaykh, Bloomsbury; €12.99

DURING a visit to Beirut, the author reluctantly agrees to write her mother, Kamila’s life story. There is caution and uncertainty between mother and daughter. The reasons for this become obvious as Kamila’s story unfolds.

As a child, Kamila lived in poverty in rural southern Lebanon. With the family’s future looking bleak, they move to Beirut to live with relatives. The poverty is palpable. Following the death of her sister, aged 13, Kamila is betrothed to her brother-in-law, a man 18 years her senior. Kamila is also apprenticed to Fatme, a seamstress, and while working with her Kamila meets and falls in love with Muhammad and marries her brother-in-law. It takes Kamila 10 years to divorce her husband and abandon her children.

Kamila’s own personality, both as a child and as an adult, shines through in the novel: her arrival in Beirut and captivation at the sights and sounds of that landscape; her childish innocence and grasping nature, begging door-to-door, making trinkets to sell, the enduring poverty and the heat of the city are all vividly described.

Life is restrictive, harsh and oppressive, there seems to be little kindness, charity or compassion in her family, and she is just another possession.

Escape is only possible in her trips to the local cinema. She is exposed to music and poetry; however, she is illiterate, and never learns to read or write. She draws a bird and a rose as her signature.

The author beautifully captures her mother’s impish character, her ability to turn every occasion into a laugh. Her inability to manage money is ever present, as is her warmth and her humanity. The book follows Kamila’s life story, but the real depth of the story is in the understanding and love that develops between mother and daughter. The initial suspicion between them evaporates and a deep love develops.