Tara leads a luxurious life in her large home in Iraq. She is a Kurd, and, although she is aware that there is some fighting going on, she does not realize the true enormity of the matter until she witnesses a shooting on her way home from school. Many members of Tara’s family are pesh murgas, Kurdish fighters. And now they are all in danger. They must flee across the border to Iran, leaving behind their home to live in grimy refuge camps. Now Tara truly appreciates her former life – but she will never get it back.

Kiss the Dust is an incredible story of a family forced to become refugees. One aspect of the book that I found particularly interesting was that the story began in a setting in which the family are living in comfort, wealth and luxury – and then they are rapidly catapulted into a completely different world. This allows the reader to appreciate more what the change must have been like for the characters. Also, it allows the reader to understand and connect more with the people in the book, only for the reason that they have a TV. My only criticism would be that more time could have been spent on describing the hard journey across the border to Iran, as I don’t think it is emphasised enough what an exhausting and terrible trip it would have been. However, other than this, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in its plot.

I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did!