A Calamity of Noble Houses

Ghenim (The Yellow Dossier) offers an enthralling saga of two upper-class families linked by marriage and roiled by an explosive letter in 1935 Tunis. The contents of the note, smuggled to Zbaida Ali Rassaa in a package of bread by her former tutor, Tahar, remain a mystery throughout the novel, as 11 narrators recount their version of what happened leading up to and following the letter’s interception by Zbaida’s in-laws. Her father is forward-thinking enough to provide his twin daughters with an education in Arabic and French literature, but is aghast when Tahar, an intellectual from the lower classes who advocates for women’s rights, emerges as a potential suitor for Zbaida. In response, he arranges for her to marry Moshen, son of the conservative Ennaifer family. As Zbaida’s and Moshen’s families and servants weigh in, the reader learns how Zbaida’s reputation is irrevocably tainted and her fidelity questioned over the following decades. While the multiple narrators can make it challenging to keep track of the characters, Ghenim provides a rich backdrop with descriptions of Tunis’s culinary traditions and Tunisia’s fight for independence. Readers will be transported. (Jan.)