I’d finished reading this thrilling account in a day and a half (including during traffic jams and at roundabouts of Emirates Highway where enormous trucks shaded me from the noon day sun). The book started of not as a book but as an email log from a young woman in Riyadh, KSA, ranting about her friends’ lives (perhaps reflecting some of her own) and the goings on within their social circle.
What transpired was a humongous readership and avid following with many a suggestion of publishing the writings; and as such the writings became a book that has caused some ruffles in certain feathers. The book is unavailable in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and is available in most Arab Countries (Perhaps even all - I got mine here in the UAE thank God!)
I liked it, it was juicy, fresh and the dialect changes were delightful, some of my friends would have loved to read it but it is unavailable in any other language so unless I’m commissioned to do so, I will not be able to translate!
Good book, worth a read and the gossip is yummier!
other views:
http://www.djibnet.com/mabraze/index.php?showtopic=9657
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/05/wnovel05.xml
sounds interesting.. how long is the book? 100 pages?
ReplyDeleteis this book meant to be a guide for non-saudis to saudi life or is it a bit more interesting than that?
or is it just a collection of rants?
either way for a 24 yr old dental student to publish a book is something, and it's even more of a something given the topic and the way it was done...
need to find one.. perhaps at my friends at al-saqi in bayswater :)
just came across this post which talks about this new book:
ReplyDeletehttp://grapeshisha.blogspot.com/2006/04/driven-to-attraction-girls-of-riyadh.html