In Finding Nouf, a mystery set in Saudi Arabia, clues are either heavily veiled, buried, or shifting like sands in the wind…literally. Nouf ash-Shrawi, a 16-year-old young woman, disappears just days before her wedding. She has everything – a wealthy family, an upcoming wedding, her whole life ahead of her – she has no reason to run away, right? Her family, believing she may have been kidnapped, hires a desert guide, Nayir al-Sharqi, to find her. But Nayir doesn’t find her. Bedouins passing through the desert find her instead – and dead, an apparent drowning in a wadi (a gully or streambed found in the Middle East and Africa during the rainy season).
Nayir, a strict Muslim, is so upset he didn’t find Nouf before it was too late, that he feels compelled to find out what really happened to her. Not only did he fail Nouf, but he let down her family, especially his good friend Othman, Nouf’s brother. Nayir, frequently described as a holy Bedouin desert guide, is really Palestinian, living in Saudi Arabia, not a Bedouin but working as a desert guide and embracing the Bedouin culture, and living at the marina on a boat. The hulking, gentle, desert man with a love affair with the sea, where he finds “a curious replication of the sandy waste.” How’s that for being an outsider?
One of his first stops is the crime lab. There a lab technician named Katya Hijazi is also taking a strong interest in Nouf’s case and she and Nayir reluctantly join forces. Though pious Nayir is initially taken aback by what he perceives to be Katya’s brazen (and sinful) manners, Katya is his only hope for finding information about Nouf’s case from the heavily veiled and secret world of women. Add to that the seemingly minor detail that Katya is engaged to marry Othman. Nayir shouldn’t be the escort of his good friend’s fiancee; in fact, most of Nayir’s traditional ideas are put to the test as he works with Katya and learns more about Nouf.
Nouf is buried with her back facing Mecca – how could that be? This is one of many clues that lead Nayir and Katya into the Shrawi’s elegant home by the sea, and into the heart and dreams of Nouf and her siblings. This 2009 Alex Award Winner is a mystery, to be sure, but also a fascinating exploration into the mystery of gender relationships in Saudi Arabia (Christie, The Loft).
Also available on CD.
Update: Finding Nouf was just named a finalist for the The Los Angeles Times Book Prize – Art Seidenbaum Finalist for First Fiction.
