It also ultimately leads them both to surprising revelations.įast-paced and utterly transporting, Finding Nouf offers an intimate glimpse inside a closed society and a riveting literary mystery.įirst published as Night of the Mi'raj in the UK. Their partnership challenges Nayir, bringing him face to face with his desire for female companionship and the limitations imposed by his beliefs. Initially horrified at the idea of a woman bold enough to bare her face and to work in public, Nayir soon realizes that if he wants to gain access to the hidden world of women, he will have to join forces with Katya Hijazi, a lab worker at the coroners office. This mission will push gentle, hulking, pious Nayir, a Palestinian orphan raised by his bachelor uncle, to delve into the secret life of a rich, protected teenage girl - in one of the most rigidly gender-segregated of Middle Eastern societies. But even more unsettling is that she died not of dehydration but from drowning. The coroner determines that she was several weeks pregnant. Ten days later, Nouf’s body is discovered. But when the coroners office determines that Nouf died not of dehydration but 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. When sixteen-year-old Nouf ash-Shrawi goes missing, her prominent family calls on desert guide Nayir al-Sharqi to lead a search party. Ten days later, just as Nayir is about to give up in frustration, her body is discovered by anonymous desert travelers.

It was my masters thesis at Columbia under the tutelage of David Ebershoff and Sheila Kohler.

When sixteen-year-old Nouf goes missing, along with a truck and her favorite camel, her prominent family calls on Nayir al-Sharqi, a desert guide, to lead a search party. Finding Nouf was first published in 2008 by Houghton Mifflin. Zoë Ferrariss electrifying debut of taut psychological suspense offers an unprecedented window into Saudi Arabia and the lives of men and women there.

Finding Nouf by Zoë Ferraris