City of Veils Book

Book Review:

The saga of Katya and Nayir continues in this, the second in this Ferraris series.

Elsewhere here on GR I have been embroiled in commentary regarding the nature of protests: political, economical, etc. And as I was responding in that particular thread my mind kept returning to perhaps the only form of protest not mentioned: the fictional author mounting a protest. In particular it kept returning to my latest read in a mystery series quite unlike any other.

City of Veils is assuredly a protest as was Finding Nouf. But it is a form of protest that slithers into your conscious mind almost unawares: it is audacious and whispers to you from behind a veiled burqa.



City of Veils

Again, we find ourselves in the city of Jeddah, gateway to Mecca and a city torn apart by a slow movement towards liberalism. Along with multiple homicides inextricably tied together the motive for the crimes for a Western reader will be difficult to ascertain. But, Ferraris handles the complexities with which we're unfamiliar with beauty and elegance. Again we are struck by a certain affection for Islam contrasted against a devastating pronouncement against the treatment of women.

But, as with any system that abuses and constricts the freedom of those in it, we find that among the women loopholes exist within their secret society.

Get this! Veiled in her Burqa, you say? To hide her countenance fromn men who might be sorely tempted? For that, I give you a Bluetooth Burqa! Now, a woman can walk the streets in perfect anonymity and flash her unexposed face to passerbys.

The more I read in this series, the more I read the news with horror story after horror story where the Arab world seeks to thwart western liberalism, the more I think this is not about faith, but about a fiercely dominated men's world that will not relinquish it's hold over the female gender, their availability for sex, childeren, and the choice of multiple wives.

For example: would it surprise you to know that Victoria Secret has nothing when compared to similar stores in Jeddah? And that it isn't the women who shop there, but the men who accompany them so as to select their favorite turn ons?

And yes, we return to the desert with Nayir. Recently my daughter and I were caught in a sandstorm just North of Colorado's great sand dunes and we had to stop the car, turn of the AC and just sit there while being pummeled by the storm, hoping the dust and sand would not invade the internal workings of my automobile.

Ferraris version of this is a devastating look at what happens when you are caught unawares in the Saudi Empty Quarter.

And yes, Ferraris continues the romantic sage between Nayir and Katya, a most humble and endearing look at courtship Saudi style.

I am impressed with this series and look forward to the third and final installment.

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Series Review:

Zoë Ferraris moved to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the first Gulf War. She lived in a conservative Muslim community with her then-husband and his family, a group of Saudi-Palestinians.

In 2006, she completed her MFA in Fiction at Columbia University. Her debut novel, Finding Nouf, (published as Night of the Mi'raj in the UK) and a follow-up novel, City of Veils, have been published in over thirty countries. Her third novel, Kingdom of Strangers, came out in June 2012.

She currently lives in San Francisco and is hard at work writing about subjects other than Saudi Arabia, the setting for her first 3 novels.

Just as we find with the Inspector O series, Zoë Ferraris sets before her the task of writing mysteries in which the very system in which the crime takes place is an obstacle to solving the mystery. Church, in his Inspector O series, places his hero within the North Korean political system, a system that is as much an obstacle to solving crimes as is the the crime itself. Ferraris, on the other hand, chooses the closed society of Saudi Arabia (or more the point, the city of Jeddah) for her novels' settings.

American readers of these novels will be reluctant to put these novels down. The riveting and intricate plots taking place in this part of the world are eye openers to what would surely mystify most readers in the West: an inside look at a closed system where women and men to this day remain segregated; where both genders come to terms and wrestle with their own views as laid down by the strictures and tenets of Islam; where heroism is defined by defying the often horrible restrictions imposed by such beliefs. The stories you will read are heroic; we certainly get the sense that Ferraris who has lived in this closed society condemns much of what she has experienced while simultaneously granting respect to the faith of Islam.

The books will shock you at the plight of Saudi women and simultaneously keep you glued to the pages as the various intrigues expand and ripple across the crescent shaped dunes in the Saudi desert. Part ethonography, part mystery detective, part literary the novels are all encompassing and are the mark of a new voice and an astounding talent on the mystery and literary fronts.

The heroes of this series are Nayir Sharqi, a male Palestinian desert guide, and Katya Hijazi, a Saudi female forensic lab worker. The mere pairing of these two of opposite genders by Ferraris is an act of defiance in itself, especially in a heavily segregated society. You will say, as a westerner: "what's the big deal in having a job?" The big deal is that women don't have jobs in this society. The fact that Katya even has a job is an act of defiance. Cloaked in public, the showing of her ankles, or even stopping to speak to a man in public may be reason enough for the religious police to throw Katya in jail.

And what about Nayir?

A devout muslim, this displaced Palestinian man was created by Ferraris to investigate all that is good about Islam. Frustrated with his desire for a female companion, often forced to confront the seeming contradictions between religious edicts and what he knows to be right, this desert man brings to us an endearment of Saudi Arabia, of Jeddah, a place caught between its role as the holy gateway to Mecca and the cosmoplitan city in an increasingly liberal world.

These books have my attention! They represent a new wave within the genre of mystery/detectives...and I do recommend this series to any who find that the above tickles their curiosity.