Saudi author to celebrate his book’s journey to Amazon bestselling list

Saudi Arabia’s al-Khobar is gearing up to host a unique literary event on September 15.

This is when Dr. Abdul Al Lily, author of The Bro Code of Saudi Culture, will celebrate the fact that his book has made it to an Amazon bestselling list. The book is available in English, Spanish and soon in Chinese.

Dr. Abdul Al Lily told Al Arabiya that the book is the first-of-its-kind to talk about Saudi culture in a purely descriptive (and thus non-judgmental and unbiased) manner. The way the content is focused on bite-sized statements helps simply put across the information.

“It is the first to present Saudi values and norms in the form of a bullet-pointed list and in bite-sized explanations. Most explanations can be read independently of any other explanations,” he said.

Author and backpacker

Dr. Abdul Al Lily says he was born and raised in Saudi Arabia and comes from a working-class family. He is a backpacker who has studied in Oxford.

“Publications about Saudi culture tend to be too serious; however, this book is not meant to be taken too seriously,” he says adding that it is intended to be entertaining and humorous.

The Bro Code of Saudi Culture has been added to the reading list of the Saudi-British Society, which declares the book to have “gained a lot of interest and attention”.

The book is said to be the product of close observations of everyday activities and around 2,000 interviews with nationals and residents, over the past five years.