Finding Nouf

From the book jacket: Wen 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. Ten days later, her body is discovered by anonymous desert travelers. But when the coroner’s office determines that Nouf died from drowning, and her family seems suspiciously uninterested in getting at the truth, Nayir takes it upon himself to find out what really happened to her.

My reaction
This was a wonderful debut psychological thriller. I particularly appreciated the setting in Saudi Arabia, and the use of a female lab technician who has some decidedly “modern” sensibilities. Katya Hijazi chafes at the rigid segregation of men and women show more in this ultra-conservative society. Her widowed father indulges her – to a point; she still must have a driver and escort wherever she goes.

Contrast this strong woman, determined to be as modern as possible within the confines of societal rules, with Nayir. He’s a Palestinian orphan who was raised by a bachelor uncle. He is devoutly Muslim, praying five times a day, refraining from contact with women, and rather rigid in his daily life. He is appalled at this brazen woman, and yet intrigued by, even drawn to her. Theirs is a partnership neither sought, but which both ultimately appreciate.

I’m fascinated by this glimpse into modern-day Saudi Arabia, a country that lives by an ancient code that mystifies this Westerner. I’m interested to see where Ferraris takes this series.

Published in the UK as Night Of the Mi’raj show less

This is a fascinating exploration of the very restrictive Saudi culture told accessibly through a conventional murder-mystery. Nayir ash-Sharqi is a desert guide, a devout Palestinian often mistaken for a Bedouin. At the book's beginning, Nayir has been hired by a wealthy and prominent Jeddah family to track their runaway daughter Nouf in the desert. When Nouf's body is found, and there is some evidence of a cover-up at the coroner's office, Nayir tries to get to the bottom of what happened to Nouf. Because laws and customs enforce the strict separation of men and women, Nayir cannot get very far in his inquiries about Nouf. He is helped when he meets Katya Hijazi, a technician in the medical examiners lab, who helps Nayir investigate show more the case, and helps him to understand the world of Saudi women - the mechanics of their everyday lives, and the emotional complexity of being and growing and hoping and dreaming in such a restrictive environment. The mystery turned the pages, though it stretched credulity at times, but the glimpse into Saudi life and the thoughts and perceptions of characters living that life was completely fascinating. Recommended. show less

I read the second of Zoë Ferraris's Saudi mysteries, City of Veils, first and was completely transported. So much so that I felt the need to get my hands on this-- the first-- book. I'm glad I did. In three novels (Kingdom of Strangers is the third), Ferraris has opened the door and shed light on a landscape, a people, and a culture that are almost totally alien to Westerners. She does it with firsthand knowledge, psychological insight, tightly woven plots, and a writing style that can be downright poetic.

Finding Nouf is a wonderful introduction to life in a Muslim country-- from dealing with the climate to many of its customs. One of the things I appreciated most from reading this book is being shown how the practice of Islam differs show more from country to country.

The two main characters-- Katya Hijazi and Nayir al-Sharqi-- are interesting in and of themselves, but also as examples of traditional and non-traditional views. Nayir is very traditional in his beliefs, so when he first begins working with the non-traditional unmarried Katya, he spends most of his time being shocked and not knowing where to look. It's refreshing to watch him slowly-- very slowly-- begin to relax a bit around her.

It's unusual for women to work in Saudi Arabia, and there are all sorts of restrictions on what types of jobs women may have and where they're able to work. Watching Katya navigate all these rules and regulations shows us how strong she is. How determined she is to succeed. She's just the sort of person who should be the coroner, but in order for that to happen, Katya is going to have to leave the country of her birth. Any Western woman who reads this book will have an eye-opening experience. She's undoubtedly going to feel incredulous and frustrated as well, especially when Katya's life is put in contrast to the lives of the extremely wealthy women of Nouf's family. (A large parking lot paved in marble? And that's before you enter the house!)

I was blindsided by the identity of Nouf's killer, and that doesn't happen often. I loved this book, and recommend it highly. I also have good news: Ferraris is a writer who starts with a winner and just keeps improving. As much as I love Finding Nouf, City of Veils is even better. My advice? Read all three of Zoë Ferraris's excellent Saudi mysteries! show less

Nayir ash-Sharqi is a Palestinian born and raised in Saudi Arabia. He's also a desert guide, often hired by the wealthy Shrawi family. They've asked him to help them track down the whereabouts of their 16-year-old daughter, Nouf, who went missing just three days before her wedding. He discovers her body in the desert, but so many things don't seem to make sense. When Nayir goes to the coroner to bring her home to her family, he is shocked to see the damage done to her corpse. He decides to continue his investigation into the cause of her death.

One of the very few women allowed to work in the laboratory, technician, Katya Hijazi, suspects murder. Katya is connected to the case through her engagement to Nouf's older brother Othman, and show more she teams with Nayir to look into Nouf's death. Initially, Nayir is horrified by Katya's boldness, but he gradually comes to respect her intelligence and skill. As they continue their investigation, both Nayir and Katya must confront deeply held beliefs as they uncover long buried family secrets.

What a fascinating book. It checks all the boxes of a typical forensic crime procedural but the Saudi Arabian setting and culture make it even better. I thought the author did a fantastic job of using a male protagonist but giving the reader a look into female characters who live and attempt to work in a society bound by strict Muslim law. I highly recommend this book to any mystery fan or anyone who wants an intriguing eye into a society that is still a mystery to most of us. I can't wait to read the next book in the series, City of Veils. show less

A basic murder mystery is raised above the norm by its setting in Saudi Arabia. We see how one of the most controlling and repressive societies in the world affects the lives of its citizens; the rich and the not-so-rich, male and, most tellingly,female. Nayir, the desert guide, who is engaged by a wealthy family to find their missing daughter, starts off the book as a slightly unsympathetic character. He struggles to uphold his devout muslim beliefs in the face of all sorts of challenges, mainly involving females. He teams up with Katya, an intelligent and independantly-minded employee at the Coroner's Office and slowly looses his prejudices. Their developing relationship is what captivated me most; Nayir's sense of humour slowly show more emerges and when I reached the final page I was really rooting for him. show less

It is not often that crime fiction readers get the chance to get right inside the skin of another society, but this is what I feel Zoe Ferraris does for us in THE NIGHT OF THE MI'RAJ.
My guess is that I already have some understanding from practical experience of how Islamic society works, but the novel showed me much greater depth.
The characters of Nayir and Katya are so well drawn. Nayir is a Palestinian often mistaken for a Bedouin. He has been employed by the family in the past as a desert guide, and this time to find out the truth about Nouf's disappearance. So he is not a policeman, not even a detective. Katya on the other hand is well qualified in forensic medicine but is a woman, trying to be "modern" in an Islamic world. The show more picture of each of them trying to bide by convention, Nayir because he wants to, Katya because she must, is carefully drawn.

I've included the author's note about the novel's title because in this case I think I actually concur with its renaming to FINDING NOUF. The title THE NIGHT OF THE MI'RAJ really has little meaning for the non-Islamic reader unless you are prepared to do some research, although it would obviously be charged with significance for the Islamic one. So I think the Islamic reader would explore the meaning of that title in a way that I never would.
On the other side of the coin though I have noted what the publisher says about this being a literary novel and coupled that with what the author says about Nayir's journey. I think I understand that Ferraris didn't see herself as primarily writing crime fiction. The investigation into the death of Nouf is really just a back drop to Nayir and Katya showing what it is like to be Islamic in the modern world. From that point of view alone the novel, whatever its title, is fascinating. show less

A murder takes place in this book but that’s not the main theme, as far as I can see. That title belongs to the subjugation of women in Saudi Arabia which, as I got further and further into the narrative, managed to make me fairly agitated (to say nothing of enlightened). Not surprisingly, the author, American Zoe Ferraris, spent only nine months in the country, getting to know her husband’s family, who had never welcomed an American into their home (and lives) before. After nine months she left the country and is now divorced. I honestly don’t see how any woman not raised in Saudi Arabia could ever adjust to the stringent conditions under which women there exist. And unfortunately for these women, they are only too aware of the show more differences between their lives and those of women living in the West because of illegal (but easily obtainable) DVDs representing ways of life they end up longing for. So I tried to view this book as a glimpse at a culture that I am totally unfamiliar with and a vehicle for learning.

Nouf ash-Shawri is the sixteen year old daughter in a wealthy Saudi family and it appears that she has run away. After searching the desert area near her home, desert guide Nayir finds that her body has been found and she apparently died, in the desert, by drowning in a wadi filled with rainwater. Why would a girl from the privileged class run away and how did she drown? These are among the many questions that kind, gentle and deeply religious, Nayir feels compelled to find the answers to, even after her family accepts the idea of accidental drowning. To do so he must accept the help of a working woman audacious enough to bare her face in public, coroner’s lab worker Katya Hijazi. Nayir finds himself at a crossroads, highly desirous of female companionship, yet highly cautious in observing his religious beliefs which include never looking directly into a woman’s eyes or being seen in public with a woman who is not his wife, sister or daughter. The religious police are always on the lookout for offenders. A clash of cultures becomes obvious when an American is detected as one of a number of suspects, and Nayir visits his apartment in an American compound:

”Inside the compound, the environment changed. These were mostly Saudi-style homes, bright stucco buildings with ornate shutters and flat roofs, but the gardens were strangely American, bursting with flowers he didn’t recognize. Americans lived here, as well as other Western workers who signed up for two, maybe three years of work in Saudi. Most of them came because the work was lucrative and completely tax-free; some companies even paid for their employees to fly back to America once or twice a year. There was a strong need for imported labor---a good number of Saudis were wealthy enough enough not to work, and, Nayir thought, they believed work was beneath them---but despite the necessity for American workers, he felt a twinge of resentment that they should come here and build their own little worlds, their own private compounds where they lived as if they were still in America.” (Page 136)

As far as a mystery goes, this one is fairly typical in its construction and Ferraris does a good job of building suspense, but I was more impressed with her depiction of a culture with which I was unfamiliar. I think for this reason, it was difficult for her to construct complex characters. They seemed fairly one dimensional to me. But I was impressed by Nayir’s ability to grow and change in his way of adapting to a more independent female like Katya. This is the first in a series. I’m not sure whether I’ll continue but I did appreciate this one. show less