Zoë Ferraris
Författare till Finding Nouf
Om författaren
Foto taget av: photo of auto Zoe Ferraris
Serier
Verk av Zoë Ferraris
À Procura de Nouf 1 exemplar
Hunt for the Pyxis (The Galaxy Pirates #1) 1 exemplar
Associerade verk
Taggad
Allmänna fakta
- Kön
- female
- Nationalitet
- USA
- Bostadsorter
- San Francisco, California, USA
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia - Utbildning
- Columbia University (MFA)
- Kort biografi
- Zoë Ferraris was born in Oklahoma, but moved a lot as the daughter of an Army colonel. She met her Saudi ex-husband in San Francisco where he was studying English. They were married--she was 21. They planned a two-week visit to Jeddah to visit his family, but it turned into a nine month stay. Sequestered unless allowed out with a male escort, she was often stopped by the religious police. Tired of her manipulative mother-in-law and the physical restrictions, Zoë and her daughter returned to San Francisco. Her husband followed, but after about a year, they divorced and he returned to Jeddah. He now has three wives by arranged marriages.
Medlemmar
Recensioner
The night of the Mi'raj av Zo Ferraris
An excellent story and illumination of a culture. I look forward to the second in this series.
Set in Jeddah, a more "progressive" city in Saudia Arabia, a woman is found washed up on a beach, brutally murdered.
A murder investigation follows, involving the disappearance of the American husband of a woman recently returned from a trip home to America (and who is finding living away from the American compound hard, especially navigating all the rules placed on women), a woman attached to the police department and her friend who is really in love with her.
Each person is trying (with various levels of success) to live in a world where both women and men are expected to live by certain behaviour, and how they struggle when it seems these rules are broken.
The book makes no excuse for Islam (and it shouldn't) but shows instead how people try and live by the rules, circumvent them when they can or think it necessary, and that ultimately, many people are simply human.
Meanwhile there's also the crime to investigate which boils down to theft and blackmail
… (mer)
A murder investigation follows, involving the disappearance of the American husband of a woman recently returned from a trip home to America (and who is finding living away from the American compound hard, especially navigating all the rules placed on women), a woman attached to the police department and her friend who is really in love with her.
Each person is trying (with various levels of success) to live in a world where both women and men are expected to live by certain behaviour, and how they struggle when it seems these rules are broken.
The book makes no excuse for Islam (and it shouldn't) but shows instead how people try and live by the rules, circumvent them when they can or think it necessary, and that ultimately, many people are simply human.
Meanwhile there's also the crime to investigate which boils down to theft and blackmail
… (mer)
From the book jacket: Wen sixteen-year-old Nouf goes missing, along with a truck and her favorite camel, her prominent family calls on Nayir ash-Sharqi, a desert guide, to lead a search party. Ten days later, her body is discovered by anonymous desert travelers. But when the coroner’s office determines that Nouf died from drowning, and her family seems suspiciously uninterested in getting at the truth, Nayir takes it upon himself to find out what really happened to her.
My reaction
This was a wonderful debut psychological thriller. I particularly appreciated the setting in Saudi Arabia, and the use of a female lab technician who has some decidedly “modern” sensibilities. Katya Hijazi chafes at the rigid segregation of men and women in this ultra-conservative society. Her widowed father indulges her – to a point; she still must have a driver and escort wherever she goes.
Contrast this strong woman, determined to be as modern as possible within the confines of societal rules, with Nayir. He’s a Palestinian orphan who was raised by a bachelor uncle. He is devoutly Muslim, praying five times a day, refraining from contact with women, and rather rigid in his daily life. He is appalled at this brazen woman, and yet intrigued by, even drawn to her. Theirs is a partnership neither sought, but which both ultimately appreciate.
I’m fascinated by this glimpse into modern-day Saudi Arabia, a country that lives by an ancient code that mystifies this Westerner. I’m interested to see where Ferraris takes this series.
Published in the UK as Night Of the Mi’raj… (mer)
My reaction
This was a wonderful debut psychological thriller. I particularly appreciated the setting in Saudi Arabia, and the use of a female lab technician who has some decidedly “modern” sensibilities. Katya Hijazi chafes at the rigid segregation of men and women in this ultra-conservative society. Her widowed father indulges her – to a point; she still must have a driver and escort wherever she goes.
Contrast this strong woman, determined to be as modern as possible within the confines of societal rules, with Nayir. He’s a Palestinian orphan who was raised by a bachelor uncle. He is devoutly Muslim, praying five times a day, refraining from contact with women, and rather rigid in his daily life. He is appalled at this brazen woman, and yet intrigued by, even drawn to her. Theirs is a partnership neither sought, but which both ultimately appreciate.
I’m fascinated by this glimpse into modern-day Saudi Arabia, a country that lives by an ancient code that mystifies this Westerner. I’m interested to see where Ferraris takes this series.
Published in the UK as Night Of the Mi’raj… (mer)
I hadn't read the first novel in this series from Zoe Ferraris but City of Veils, set in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia was both fascinating and gripping. A young woman's body is washed up on the shore, due to her injuries she is difficult to identify. It is Katya, a forensic scientist who is keen and clever, who find the bluetooth in her cloak and reveals her identity. Miriam, an American woman, returns to Jeddah after a month in the US as her husband is working in Saudi Arabia. Her husband is late collecting her from the airport, drives her to their flat, goes out for takeaway and then disappears. These two mysteries eventually collide and all with the backdrop of Islamic ways of living that make it difficult for women to get out and about. Nayir, a desert guide and friend of Katya helps out and Osama is the detective on the case. We see characters change and develop as they navigate the rules and come across new experiences as the cases are investigated and different people interviewed.… (mer)
Listor
Global Mysteries (2)
Priser
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Associerade författare
Statistik
- Verk
- 7
- Även av
- 1
- Medlemmar
- 1,721
- Popularitet
- #14,928
- Betyg
- 3.9
- Recensioner
- 136
- ISBN
- 81
- Språk
- 10
- Favoritmärkt
- 2
