Reviews

• A Genuine Whodunit in the Desert!

  Finding Nouf is an intriguing, often suspenseful murder mystery set against the backdrop of simmering generational differences in modern Saudi Arabian society. The two central characters, Nayir al-Sharqi and Katya Hijazi, represent opposite ends of the great divide between the older Wahhabist Sunni establishment and an emerging, decidedly less observant younger generation of Saudis. Their unusual partnership, entered into in order to solve the mystery, exemplifies some of the struggles occurring between older, traditional Arab men and younger, more liberated women relative to acceptable roles for women in society. Nayir, actually a Palestinian, is almost a caricature of the pious Muslim. Despite the bonds imposed on him by restrictive Saudi society, he longs for romance and struggles to reconcile his need for companionship with his strict adherence to Sharia law. Interestingly, he seems to chafe against those oppressive bonds, particularly as they restrict his ability to work with women. Even making eye contact with a woman causes him great angst. As a result of this personal torment and the baggage associated with a previously failed relationship, Nayir is in a sort of self-imposed romantic exile - living a Spartan, reclusive existence on a sailboat in Jeddah harbor. Katya by contrast represents the newly empowered younger generation of Saudi women entirely comfortable in their hard-won independence. While complying with such government-enforced customs as remaining covered from head to toe in public, Katya reaches considerably higher professionally than many Saudi women - even earning a Ph.D. Employed as a medical examiner, she spreads her wings in investigating a murder that strikes uncomfortably close to home - the home, that is, of her fiancé. Nevertheless, she is both patient and determined in her quest to solve the crime and bring the perpetrator to justice. Finding Nouf is loaded with twists and turns as Katya joins forces with Nayir in a sort of Sarah Sidle (CSI) meets Columbo. To this odd couple of an investigative team Katya brings knowledge of modern medical forensics while Nayir brings a dogged persistence combined with ample experience in good old-fashioned gumshoe detective work. Their diverging points of view give way to a productive, though at times uneasy, professional collaboration, and their disagreement regarding traditional male and female roles eases into a casual social relationship. Yes, they even go on a date - though Katya (predictably) brings her obligatory (and omnipresent) escort. In Finding Nouf, Zoe Ferraris quite deftly captures the struggles occurring in modern Saudi society today while at the same time entertaining the reader with a genuine whodunit in the desert. What make this story so compelling is the author's depiction of the challenges of living in a closed, devoutly Muslim society and the effect those challenges can have on members of that society. Particularly for younger Saudis who are perhaps more susceptible to the lure of Western freedoms and, the Saudi government might argue, immoral behaviors characteristic of more permissive Western societies, the restrictiveness can be stifling and might even drive Saudi citizens to extremes of behavior. Those individuals had better hope that Nayir and Katya are not investigating them. With these two sleuths on the case, their secrets will not remain secret for long! Well worth the read!

• Good story

  This book gave a lot of information on the differences between the lives of men and women in this society. It pointed out the temptation for folk to pretend they are living the life as set out in the Quran or by the moral police. The story was quite intriguing - a very good read.

• Sister Nouf

  "Finding Nouf" is an interesting hybrid: social commentary wound around the frame of a detective story about a wealthy young Saudi teenager who turns up dead in the desert. I'm no connoisseur of detective fiction, but the novel kept me entertained--and in suspense--until pretty close to the end. What's more interesting is the author's observations of contemporary Saudi society and culture. The brief biography on the back of the book indicates that she lived in Saudi Arabia for more than a decade. What Zoe Ferraris depicts is a society that reveres its desert forebears (just as Americans revere their own pioneer forebears) but has absolutely no desire to return to those beginnings. Indeed, the wealthy, indolent family that she depicts is so far removed from the Bedouin ancestors it claims to admire, so bloated by every form of luxury, from closets full of furs to private islands stocked with jet skis, that it induces a kind of paralysis. The women sit in their secluded living room, waited upon for every need, their topics of conversation confined to children and shopping. The men don't appear to have much to do either. These are an outsider's observations, of course, although the cloistered lives of Saudi women, including the prohibition against their being permitted to drive, have been well-documented elsewhere. The author may get some of her details wrong, but the overall impression of an insular society whose wealthiest women stuff their closets with expensive clothes they will never wear is quite powerful. It certainly accounts for Nouf, whose desire to get out of her stifling surroundings is naïve, pitiable, and ultimately fatal. M. Feldman

• Great Book - Could be an Important Movie

  What Zoë does better than any author I have read is to take the Western reader inside the minds of conservative Saudi Muslims today. Her books are very accessible murder mysteries, solved by Saudis in Jedda. She is a good story-teller and her stories are character-driven and very visual. I think they could make a good movie. What Finding Nouf does is what The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time did for Autism and what The Rosie Project did for Aspergers - it puts people in the mind and perceptions of other types of people who are hard to understand. Finding Nouf is especially important today because most Americans need to come to grips with how Muslims really think and act - the book makes it very accessible and visual and it is easy to imagine that it could create an important movie that might find a large audience. You have to think like a Saudi Muslim to solve the crimes. Nearly all other movies on Muslims are terrorism/CIA (e.g. Syriana) or just annoying (Syrian Bride, Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot). This one actually is a really good story (i.e., Colombo/CSI of Arabia) about day-to-day life in a conservative Muslim country (there are no radicals, terrorists, or terrorism). There is also a very strong and compelling feminist theme smoothly flowing behind the entire story line - like it or not, the very conservative Saudis must learn to live in the 21st century.

• inside Saudi culture

  Enjoy books that allow insight into other cultures. This book’s revealing of Saudi/modern Bedouin culture follows an educated woman of science and a man schooled in the desert’s domain. They come together to solve the death of a young woman, sister to a man they both care about. The journey is revealing about them and to them. I guessed both the mysteries of the victim. I will try the second book in the series.

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