’Girls of Riyadh’
By Rajaa Alsenea
Penguin USA
Pub Date: 6/24/08
$14
286 pp
This sharp and witty book tells the fictional story of four young women in Saudi Arabia. The book was originally published only in Arabic and was immediately banned from Saudi Arabia because of its controversial (by Saudi standards) content. Due to the novel’s black-market success and to a desire to introduce a truer vision of Saudi life to the Western world, the author translated the novel into English.
By American standards the book is a light read that could easily be classed as a teen novel. The narrator is a woman, who sends out an e-mail every Friday to recipients in Saudi Arabia detailing a story about the life of one of her four friends. Gamrah marries a man chosen by her family and is then shipped off to America; Sadeem falls in and out of love; Lamees studies to become a doctor; and Michelle angrily fights against the cultural constraints that bind Saudi women. I found myself eagerly awaiting each new “e-mail.”
The soap opera flavor of the book is well balanced with intelligent text and insightful thoughts about the very real social issues facing the Arab world today. For a true vision of Saudi life from the lips of one of their own, read “Girls of Riyadh.” CV
’The Last Train From Paris’
By Stacy Cohen
Greenleaf Book Group
Pub Date: 9/1/09
$21.95
312 pp
Painting and women consumed the waking hours of Jean-Luc, a young dilettante living in German-occupied Paris during WWII. When he agrees to work on the background for the upcoming ballet, he falls in love with Natasha, a Russian ballerina, who hides a terrible secret. They have a brief time together, when fate steps in featuring the German commandant who takes Natasha as his lover. Fearing for the life of Jean-Luc, Natasha plays along, hoping she can survive. Jean-Luc, desperate to recover Natasha, joins forces with the French Resistance as the Allies close in. What will become of them? Read the exciting story of these two lovers in war-torn Paris. CV
