Girls of Riyadh
By Rajaa Alsanea; Rajaa Alsanea (Translator); Marilyn Booth (Translator)
(Penguin (Non-Classics), Paperback, 9780143113478, 304pp.)
Publication Date: July 2008
Categories: Literary
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When Rajaa Alsanea boldly chose to open up the hidden world of Saudi women--their private lives and their conflicts with the traditions of their culture--she caused a sensation across the Arab world. Now in English, Alsanea's tale of the personal struggles of four young upper-class women offers Westerners an unprecedented glimpse into a society often veiled from view. Living in restrictive Riyadh but traveling all over the globe, these modern Saudi women literally and figuratively shed traditional garb as they search for love, fulfillment, and their place somewhere in between Western society and their Islamic home.
RAJAA ALSANEA grew up in Riyadh, the daughter of a family of doctors. She intends to return to Saudi Arabia after attaining a degree in Endodontics. Two weeks after the release of Girls of Riyadh in Arabic, the book became a #1 bestseller. Rajaa is twenty-sixyears- old, and this is her first novel.
1. Gamrah's mother believes that "woman is to man as butter is to sun." Do all the men in this novel have a corrupting influence on the women who love them?
The daring debut by a young Saudi Arabian woman-- "imagine Sex and the City, if the city in question were Riyadh"
--Time
" [The] work of a brave, intelligent young woman. One of those rare books with the power to shake up an entrenched society."
--Los Angeles Times "Engaging, enlightening, enjoyable."
--The Seattle Times "A taboo-breaking novel."
--The Washington Post
" A rare glimpse into ordinary life for young women in Saudi Arabia."
--San Francisco Chronicle
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