Mosaic - Hardcover

Khashoggi, Soheir

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0765312352 ISBN 13: 9780765312358

Publisher: Forge Books, 2004

Synopsis

Set against the bustling backdrop of New York City and the exotic splendor of Jordan, Mosaic is a story of love and betrayal, of a clash of cultures and traditions---and one woman's struggle to rebuild her life.

Like many working mothers, Dina Ahmed has become adept at juggling her family and her work. She's the owner of Mosaic, a thriving floral design business, and has been blessed with success, beauty, and, most important, a happy family.

But when she returns home one day to discover that her six-year-old twins have vanished, Dina is forced to admit that her life and her marriage were not as perfect as she'd once believed. After many desperate phone calls---and anxious hours spent piecing the puzzle together---Dina accepts the terrible truth: Her husband, Karim, has taken the twins to his homeland of Jordan to raise the children with his family there.

The authorities can do nothing to bring Dina's children back, and even her father's contacts in the U.S. State Department are of little help. Karim's family is wealthy and powerful, and even though Dina is half Arab herself, her options are limited.

Distraught, but determined to fight, Dina travels to Jordan to confront her husband and to enact a desperate plan to get her children back---but at what risk?

About this title

About the Author

Soheir Khashoggi was born in Alexandria, Egypt. A member of one of Saudi Arabia's most prominent families, she has used her influence to highlight the plight of women across the Arab world. She has participated in conferences worldwide and was a speaker at the international Women's World Forum Against Violence, an organization founded by Queen Sofia of Spain. Ms. Khashoggi has four daughters and lives in New York City.

Reviews

Khashoggi (Mirage) blends a family drama's thoughtfulness with a thriller's tension in this fast-paced novel about a half-Lebanese Manhattanite whose husband, in doing what he believes is right, turns her world upside down. Dina Ahmed thought she had the nearly ideal cross-cultural life: her husband, Karim, is a successful diplomat from a wealthy Jordanian family; her twins, Ali and Suzanne, are lively and well adjusted, well cared for by Karim's spinster aunt; and her chic floral boutique, Mosaic, is thriving. But Karim, plagued by the vague suspicion he's faced after 9/11 and convinced he must save the twins from the American influences he feels have already ruined his and Dina's gay teenage son, Jordy (from whom Karim is estranged), takes Ali and Suzanne to his family home in Amman and vows to raise them there. Dina learns that she has few legal options, and the high-priced detective she consults turns down a rescue job because of Karim's powerful family. Frustrated and frantic, Dina turns to a low-profile PI named John Constantine; after visiting Karim's home in Amman, the detective recommends that Dina journey to visit her children so he can organize a rescue operation during her stay. Khashoggi's taut storytelling keeps the suspense high throughout, and the plot twists are both surprising and realistic, as the author wisely avoids both thriller clichés and post-9/11 politics to engineer a series of believable, thought-provoking compromises.
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Like her debut, Mirage (1995), Khashoggi's second novel sculpts a broader understanding of Arab women's lives, both in the Middle East and America. Dina Ahmed has it all, a happy family and flourishing floral-design business, but her world ruptures when she discovers that her husband, Karim, has kidnapped their eight-year-old twins from New York and returned with them to his homeland in Jordan. Dina enlists her good friends Sarah, a Jewish physician, and Emmeline, a "Creole Martha Stewart," to help her pick up the pieces and find a way to fight back. All the while, Dina must shield her eldest son, who has been rejected by his father for being gay, while risking all to regain her twins. Delicate subjects--from the complexity of marriage to the clash of American and Islamic cultures--are approached with care and balance, and the combination of savvy writing and three-dimensional characters brings refreshing depth and perspective to this highly charged, emotional story. Misha Stone
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Forge Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0765312352
• ISBN 13: 9780765312358
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320