The Night of the Mi'raj (2008)

An interesting mystery, a fascinating look at a culture I'm unfamiliar with, and great characters. Nayir is complex, deeply moral, and honorable; Katya is intelligent and resourceful, working within society's limitations towards a full life. I definitely want to spend more time with these characters. ( )

This is a mystery set in Saudi Arabia, Nouf Shrawi is missing, a pious desert guide named Nayir has been asked by Nouf’s brother, who is Nayir’s friend to look for her. After she is found dead, Nayir is asked, unofficially, to look into her death, a lab technician named Katya is also asked to help, Nayir reluctantly accepts her help since contact between men and women who are not related is forbidden.

Besides being a fascinating mystery story, this book also gave me a look into a country with customs and rules much different than my own. At times I wondered what the Saudis would think of me, living alone, supporting myself with my own job and having a driver’s license also!

Ms. Ferraris explains these customs to us by making them part of the story, in the first chapter, Nayir is thinking about Nouf, imagining her walking through the desert with sunburned ankles, then asks forgiveness from God for picturing her ankles. The religious police are mentioned, we understand their role and the power they have by the characters’ comments about them and their reactions to the thought they might be around. In another situation, Katya sits outside with her father, without her face covered and counts the number of old friends of her father who won’t come near because her face is showing. None of this distracts from the story, Ms. Ferraris makes them a part of the story, the customs of the land play a part in what happens to Nouf and Nayir and Katya are bound by them while at the same time they are trying to solve the mystery.

This is the first in a series. I thought it was enjoyable and well written and recommend it. ( )

This is a difficult book to review because I had mixed reactions to different aspects of it. As pure storytelling I have one response but this is underpinned by a some doubts about the authenticity of the setting Ferraris has depicted and as these doubts, which might be unfounded, grew I think they affected my enjoyment of the story itself. As always though these are one person’s thoughts and if you don’t like them there are plenty of other opinions to be had.

When 16-year old Nouf ash-Shrawi disappears from the home of her wealthy Saudi Arabian family her brother Othman asks his friend, Palestinian born Nayir ash-Sharqi, to look for her. Nayir, often mistaken for a Bedouin, is a desert guide and is only too willing to assist his friend. Unfortunately though Nouf is found dead in a desert Wadi and the autopsy reveals she has drowned. What remains to uncover then is whether she ran away or was kidnapped. Nayir takes on the role of the family’s investigator but when Othman’s fiancée Katya Hijazi, a lab technician who assisted with the autopsy, also becomes involved in the investigation Nayir struggles because, being a conservative Muslim, he is not allowed to talk to a single woman.

From a pure storytelling standpoint this is an entertaining, if somewhat slow-moving novel, though probably not one for die hard crime fiction fans as it’s really not much of a mystery. However I think Ferraris’ intent is to paint a picture of the exotic location and society and the plot device of solving a possible murder was simply the most convenient way to achieve that end. It is hard to imagine for example too many circumstances other than the unexpected death of his friend’s young sister that would have prompted someone as conservative as Nayir to interact with a single woman in the way he ultimately interacts with Katya.

Nayir, Katya, Othman and even Nouf to the extent we learn about her after her death are thoughtfully depicted character studies. The competing desire to conform to their society’s strict rules and their frustration at having to do so is shown from both a female and male perspective which is unusual and worth exploring. The kind of claustrophobia that some people, women in particular, must feel in these surroundings especially when they have had some exposure to different cultures including less strict Muslim ones, was very well shown and the highlight of the novel for me. In particular the sad resolution to the mystery was very fitting in that it demonstrated what people will do when there are such limited opportunities for them to change their circumstances.

But on to my qualms about this book. Let me first state I am no expert on either Saudi Arabia or Islamic life but as I read the book I kept picking up on little details that didn’t sound right to me from my limited knowledge of the country and culture. Not only did this make me wonder what else might I be missing, but I couldn’t help but ponder if the book was doing less ‘lifting the veil on a culture we know little about’ and more reflecting back some entrenched stereotypes about that culture that westerners are largely comfortable with. If this is what’s happening I have no idea how much is to do with the author’s mistakes and how much might be due to publishers asking for changes that fit in better with the target audience’s existing knowledge but either way I didn’t fully buy into the story because of my perception of inaccuracy about some fairly fundamental details.

At one point for example there is mention made of a pious young girl who came to visit the family for a short time but has stayed for 2 years and repeated the Haj (or Hajj)12 times. The Haj is an annual event that happens during specific dates on the Islamic calendar and I think that even if the young girl had visited Mecca at other times (unlikely in itself) it would be called an Umrah. Another language discrepancy that I picked up was that the women were referred to as wearing burqas whereas the face covering in Saudi Arabia is of a different kind and is known as a nikab. Even more troubling though than these kinds of inaccuracies were things that I felt served no purpose other than to perpetuate some good old-fashioned stereotypes. The one that immediately springs to mind is when Nayir is pondering whether two particular men might be gay which serves no purpose whatsoever other than an opportunity for readers to be told what horrible things happen to gay people in Saudi Arabia.

I’m not for one moment suggesting that everything in the book is wrong or that I don’t have severe misgivings about the way women can be treated when the strictest interpretation of Islamic law is applied. I’m just not entirely convinced that this book, regardless of how good the story might be, adds much to the western understanding of the culture it is depicting. ( )

What a strange and interesting world Ferraris creates. A murder mystery in Saudi Arabia. Nicely written with interesting characters who are confounded by the boundaries of their culture and religion and must use logic and ingenuity to solve a vicious crime and fall in love! ( )

This is a mystery set in contemporary Saudi Arabia. Nayir ash-Sharqi, a desert guide, is asked by his friend, Othman Shrawi, to find his sixteen-year-old sister, Nouf. After her body is discovered, Nayir sets out to find out how she died; he is assisted in his investigation by Katya Hijazi, a forensic technician who also happens to be Othman’s fiancée.

The mystery is satisfactory, although the identity of one person guilty of a crime is very obvious early on because the implication of this person solves a relationship problem for Nayir and Katya. What is most interesting about the book is its glimpse into Saudi Arabia’s restrictive Muslim culture. Various aspects of Saudi culture are interwoven into the narrative: the importance of hospitality, attitudes towards Americans and immigrants, segregation of men and women, gender roles.

For Nayir and Katya to work together, they must resort to deception and subterfuge which make Nayir uncomfortable. As a traditional conservative Muslim, he has rather rigid ideas about female modesty and proper behaviour. His interaction with Katya forces him to become more flexible as she provides commentary on the realities of life for women. Nayir argues that “’All the prescriptions for modesty and wearing the veil, for decent behavior and abstinence before marriage’” are intended to protect women, but Katya counters that “’those same prescriptions can sometimes cause the degradation people fear the most’” (219).

In many ways, the main conflict is between tradition and desire. Nayir wants to marry, yet his religious beliefs restrict his contact with single women. Katya would like to be a wife and mother, but she also wants a career, so she seeks “’a husband who respects [her] work’” (217). It also becomes clear that Nouf also wanted the freedom to make choices: “’Yes, options . . . I think that’s what Nouf wanted’” (218).

I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy mysteries in an exotic locale which is gradually made familiar. ( )