Book Review: A true story dressed up as a novel
The Dressmaker of Baghdad is based on the true story of the mother of Orna Zaig, published in 2025 in Kindle. Zaig is one of several (mostly female) authors writing in English who have tried to recreate a vanished world constructed from the stories they have heard from older relatives.
Esther’s parents are Aramaic-speakers from northern Iraq, presumably Kurdish Jews. It is a mystery why they have moved down to Baghdad. These are hardworking people who struggle to establish their place in Baghdad’s stratified Jewish society.
Esther’s early childhood is scarred by the loss of her mother. As her father, Abu Salman, grieves for his beloved wife, Esther is left to bring up her younger brothers, Salman and Tzion. She is pulled out of school early to focus on her passion to be a seamstress, recreating the dresses worn by American movie stars. (To give girls employment, embroidery and dressmaking were skills taught at the Laura Kadoorie atelier).
There is no love lost between the children and their prim stepmother-cum-housekeeper Lulu. Life begins to change when Lulu take in two lodgers, the handsome Mordi and his mother. Esther becomes infatuated with Mordi and he, seemingly, with her. But he is struck down with tuberculosis – a reminder that deadly diseases were still rampant in Iraq – and sent away to convalesce in Lebanon. Will the relationship survive his absence?
Zaig writes well and evokes the staples of Iraqi-Jewish life, the stewed tea and sambusek -among other foods – the markets, sleeping on the roof in summer, the romance of an evening by the river Tigris. The language is peppered with Judeo-Arabic expressions. The book hints at a time of momentous change, but the historical background remains sketchy.
In the 1940s, politics catch up with the family: Salman turns to Communism, while Tzion trains in self-defence with the clandestine Zionist movement. They mirror the divergent paths taken by Jewish youth in Iraq in the aftermath of the Farhud, the massacre of Baghdad’s Jews in 1941. Almost the entire community will join the mass airlift to Israel in 1950.
The author paints a picture of women still hamstrung by superstition yet becoming mistresses of their own destinies.
Her portrayal of the characters in the novel is convincing. To superstitious stepmother Lulu, everything is maktub – written in the stars. Yet Lulu proves to be the most practical and capable member of the family, finding lodgers and running the business while Abu Salman is away in India. While Jews are increasingly being persecuted by the Iraqi regime, Nadia the gossipy Muslim neighbour remains someone Esther can confide in.
The Dressmaker of Baghdad is an engaging read : Zaig does a good job retaining our interest. At the end she reveals the reason which made Esther’s parents leave their native Kurdistan. We are left hankering for more information. Maybe Zaig will write a sequel?
