VFour days, four generations, four worlds. In her novel „Four Days – A Middle Eastern Tetralogy”, Mona Yahia tells the story of the lives of four generations of an Oriental-Jewish family. The story begins in Mosul in 1918 – when the British take the city and the doctor Hayim has to decide whether to stay in the city with his family. His daughter Rebekka emigrates in 1936 to the still young city of Tel Aviv. Another setting of the book is Babel, where Leila, Hayim's granddaughter, does her military service at the beginning of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. In the fourth chapter we meet Hayim's grandson Nemir in Istanbul. Kirsten E. Lehmann has expertly translated the book into German from the English.

Mona Yahia, Born in Baghdad in 1954, she fled with her family to Iran in 1970, from where she immigrated to Israel in 1971. Following her military service, she studied psychology and French literature at Tel Aviv University. In the 1980s, she studied fine art under Harry Kramer at the Gesamthochschule Kassel and worked in conceptual art before turning to writing. Her debut novel, „When the Grey Beetles Took over Baghdad“ (published in German as "Durch Bagdad fließt ein dunkler Strom"), was awarded the Jewish Quarterly Wingate Prize for Fiction in London in 2001. In addition, she has published short stories and essays, including in English and German literary magazines and anthologies, as well as two photo books on the historical caravanserais of Istanbul. Mona Yahia writes in English and lives in Cologne.