The Orange Trees of Baghdad is a found memoir, a record of partial memories and secondhand observations of world events. In it, Canadian-Iraqi author and journalist Leilah Nadir strikes out to learn about the lives of her grandfather’s family in Iraq over the past 30 years. The book belongs as much to her father as it does to Nadir: she uncovers her own past through his experiences.

Nadir seems to recognize that the memoir genre poses a challenge, particularly for someone whose family history is so closely intertwined with international and civil conflict. A journalist by trade, she elects to let her subjects tell the story without her interference. Most pages are thick with direct quotes. When Nadir’s own voice does break through, it does much to humanize and ground the complicated politics and intricate family history. I wanted to hear more of it, rather than be distanced from her observations and discoveries.

Readers who are familiar with the last half-century or so of Iraq’s history may not be satisfied by Nadir’s level of analysis and synthesis of the larger picture, but her attempt to trace her family tree in an uncommon land makes this a compelling first book from a thoughtful writer.