`An identity is never just a single thing,' writes Aline P'Nina Tayar. She should know. Born a Maltese Jew, raised in Israel and Australia, resident in England, she is of a family who were always asked where they came from. How Shall We Sing? is her attempt to answer that question. From Tunisia to Israel, Tayar follows the multiple threads laid down across the eastern Mediterranean by three generations of her footloose ancestors. With colour and affection she evokes the now-abandoned Jewish neighbourhoods of Tunis, Tripoli and Malta, peopling them with members of her family - dowagers, stern rabbis and dandy uncles. Family fortunes wax and wane, and we see the rise of Nazism, the creation of the Israeli state and resurgent Islamic fundamentalism. Family history dominates the two other strands of the narrative - personal encounters and Tayar's musings on the nature of belonging - and Tayar modestly keeps herself out of the limelight. Indeed, only on page 97 do we learn that she has an English husband. This is a book that will appeal to Jewish readers, those interested in a woman's search for her identity, and those who hanker for the Mediterranean as it was before the rise of Euro-tourism and Colonel Qaddafi.

William Gourlay is a freelance journalist. 

C. 2000 Thorpe-Bowker and contributors

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