Girls of Riyadh - Softcover

Rajaa Alsanea

  • 3.28 out of 5 stars
    21,276 ratings by Goodreads
 
9781905490219: Girls of Riyadh

Synopsis

Saudi arabia - where marriages are arranged and there are no cinemas or parties to go to, where social life consists of trying to keep girls and boys apart rather than put them together but as rajaa alsanea reveals in this absorbing novel, thats not the whole story: determination, mobile phones and the internet have made life easier for young saudis, and the four girls in this novel are all finding romance even though mostly it goes badly wrong girls of riyadh captures the trials and tribulations of a middle-class society quite unlike our own and blows the lid off all our preconceptions of arab life

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author

Rajaa Alsanea is the author of the novel Girls of Riyadh, which was long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Award. She grew up in Saudi Arabia as one of six siblings in a family of doctors and dentists. Alsanea received her bachelor’s degree in endodontics from King Saud University in 2005.

From AudioFile

This is chick lit with a major difference: It gives us four upper-class Saudi girlfriends who hope for true love and fulfilling marriage just as much as Elizabeth Bennet ever did--but in a very modern cultural setting far more confining as to womens power over their own futures than eighteenth-century England ever was. As social history it is fascinating. The translation from Arabic seems fluent; the author has provided many necessary footnotes explaining cultural semiotics (dress, accents, food, worship) whose import the non-Saudi reader would miss. Kate Reading handles these gracefully, and her Arabic pronunciation is confidence-inspiring. Best, she delivers believable, sympathetic characters and keeps the pot on the boil. This book is an eye-opener. B.G. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title