To lose your camel in the desert is death.

He knows the Saudi Arabian desert as well as a Bedouin and he knows better than anyone how quickly the heat and dehydration can kill a 16 year old girl. When Nayir Sharqi is asked by his friend Othman Shrawi to find his missing sister, Nouf, he had no idea what he is getting into. 'A family buries a woman with her back to Mecca only when she carries a baby in her belly, a baby whose face, in death, must be turned in the direction of the Holy Mosque.' The final revelation of the truth forces Nayir to confront his own attitudes about women and society and in his deepening relationship with Katya, to face up to his own long-denied yearnings for love and intimacy. In a land of prayers, purity, and patriarchy, the dreams of mere mortals often go unrealized, and the consequences of misbehavior for both men and women are disastrous. As Nayir uncovers clues that only serve to deepen the mystery behind Nouf's disappearance, he teams up with Katya, a liberated Saudi woman who is engaged to one of Nouf's brothers.Īs they move closer to the truth, the pair's detective work unveils layers of secrets. Hired to track her and her potential abductor is Nayir, a solitary, pious desert guide of dubious origin, and a friend of the family. The missing woman is Nouf Shrawi, one of several sheltered teenaged daughters of a powerful local family. Thus begins a novel that offers rare insight into the inner workings of a country in which women must wear the iabaya/i in public or risk denunciation by the religious police where ancient beliefs, taboos, and customs frequently clash with a fast-moving, technology-driven modern world.brbr In a blazing hot desert in Saudia Arabia, a search party is dispatched to find a missing young woman.

Finding Nouf by Zoë Ferraris