US novel gives positive peek on Saudi society

U.S. bookstores are selling a novel by American writer Zu Ferraris that is giving a rare positive window into the Saudi society and the lives of men and women there, according to a press report Sunday.

Ferraris’ “Finding Nouf” is an electrifying debut of taut psychological suspense that offers an unprecedented window into Saudi Arabia. Ferraris is married to a Saudi man and the novel is a reflection of her infatuation with the Saudi way of life during her nine-month stay with her husband there, reported the London-based Dar Al-Hayat newspaper.

Ferraris novel has won wide acclaim for its incisive portrayal of a conservative Muslim man's navigation of tightly rule-bound Saudi society as he tries to solve the mystery behind the suspicious death of a 16-year-old girl, according to a book review published by Los Angeles Times.

Ferraris, 38, is an Oklahoma-born woman, who met her Saudi husband when she was a teenager and they were married in San Francisco in 1991 when Ferraris was just 21 years old.

She originally planned a two-week long trip to her husband’s homeland, but the journey lasted nine months and produced her first novel, ‘Finding Nouf’.

A finely detailed literary mystery set in contemporary Saudi Arabia, Ferraris's debut centers on Nouf ash-Shrawi, a 16-year-old girl who disappeared into the desert three days before her marriage and has been found dead, several weeks pregnant.