Nathalie Abi-Ezzi

Nathalie Abi-Ezzi is a novelist and short-story writer. Her birthplace, Lebanon, inspired her first two novels. A Girl Made of Dust (4^th Estate, 2008) tells the story of a ten-year-old girl trying to unravel family intrigues in the midst of the Lebanese civil war. It won the LiBeraturpreis, was shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott prize, Waverton Good Read award and Author’s Club Best First Novel award, longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin award and chosen for Edinburgh International Book Festival’s New Voices list. It has also been adapted into a film script. Her follow-up, Paper Sparrows (Holland House Books, 2020), follows a teenager’s search for her missing brother through Beirut during the July War of 2006. Nathalie’s published PhD in English Literature contributed to an interest in the uncanny, which is evident in her short stories. These have variously won awards, appeared in anthologies, and been both broadcast on Radio 4 and performed at live events. More recently, she has begun to write poetry, and her first collection, Needle Around Her Neck, was published in 2023 by Fair Acre Press. Her next novel will be published in 2026.