Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris
Release date/ Length: 2008 / 305 pages
Synopsis (from back cover): When sixteen-year-old Nouf goes missing, along with a truck and her favorite camel, her prominent family calls on Nayir ash-Sharqi, a desert guide, to lead a search party.
First line: Before the sun set that evening, Nayir filled his canteen, tucked a prayer rug beneath his arm, and climbed the south-facing dune near the camp.
Review: A few weeks ago I was contacted regarding whether or not I had a set of discussion questions available for this novel. Not only did I not have questions, I had never heard of the novel! I offered to create a set, but the woman’s book club was meeting that evening and even I cannot read and write that fast! However, my curiosity was piqued and so I requested this from the library.
Happily, this novel is out of my usual genres. It is a suspenseful, dramatic mystery that is very hard to put to down. A young girl disappears and her family asks a friend who is familiar with the desert to find her. This much you read in my synopsis, and I really can’t reveal any more of the plot! However, I can reveal that the character development is excellent, the sense of place (Saudi Arabia) finely wrought and the conclusion quite satisfying.
I find Saudi Arabia fascinating and have read other works about this country, partly because I am curious to learn about where so much of our money goes in this country and partly because I feel a sense of responsibility to learn about other cultures — especially those not always friendly to my own.
This book really is a mystery and not a political treatise in any sense, which was appropriate. The author’s bio states that she “moved to Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the first Gulf War to live with her then husband and his extended family of Saudi-Palestinian Bedouins, who had never welcomed an American into their lives before.” I found this background information fascinating because there is a lovely sense of respect for the characters — and a remarkable lack of judgement based on cultural differences from the West. The characters grapple with those universal conflicts we all confront — how to find true love, who to trust, how to uphold and live our beliefs and values — and become quite memorable and real throughout the narrative.
The prose is lovely, too. Here is an excerpt that represents Ferraris’s style:
Abu Tahsin had turned to him and said, his voice deep like a rumor, ‘The birds in the sky are not to be counted, and yet every one of them follows a pattern. Do you think this is a sign for prudent men?’
Nayir had said yes, it was probably a sign. At the time he thought only of the obvious meaning, as it says in the Quran: that Allah’s existence can be known by His signs, the mysterious structures of the universe. Yet here in the sitting room was another sign of sorts: the decrepitude of age, as dark and predictable as night.
Ferraris has a intuitive sense of imagery and creates the setting deftly. I felt transported to the desert on every page. She also forms the consciousness of Nayir beautifully — he is a character not soon forgotten.
Now, would this novel be good for a book club? If your club is interested in learning about the middle east, then I would say so. I usually would not recommend a mystery as a strong book club choice, since this genre tends to focus on plot, rather than theme. Sitting around and discussing who figured out “who dun it” (I didn’t) seems limited at best.
However, the cultural aspects of this novel — as well as the obvious gender issues — could result in a pretty good discussion. As I stated earlier, Ferraris creates a “judgement-free” context — so if your book club is able to do this as well, then consider suggesting it. On the other hand, I think a discussion involving “Can you believe women have to be escorted and wear burquas” would become stale, if not downright annoying, pretty quickly. So, based on the disposition of your book club, I would conditionally recommend this.
However, I whole-heartedly recommend this to solo readers! Just a warning… you will not want to put it down, so choose when you start it carefully… 
Anyone else read this yet? Did I do justice to Ferraris’s first novel?
I have never heard of this novel either, but it sounds fascinating. Thanks for sharing!