Finding Nouf

Ferraris, Zoe.  Finding Nouf.  New York:  Mariner, 2008.  Print.

Nayir ash-Sharqi may only be a desert guide to some, but to others, he is the only hope of finding out what happened to sixteen year old Nouf Shrawi.  When Nouf’s body is found and the autopsy reports drowning…in the desert, Nayir attempts to track Nouf’s last few days.  Helping him search for evidence is 28-year-old Katya Hajazi, who hopes that the truth will set Nouf free.

This mystery is set in present day Saudi Arabia, and reveals much about the practices of a society so different from our own Western one, while also revealing that in essence, we are all much the same.  I liked parts of this book, but some of the time I found it very heavy reading.  I enjoyed the visual descriptions that the author added to make the setting come alive, but I’ll admit that I found it hard to relate to the characters.