Wow! eBook
The Others
Author(s): Siba Al-Harez (Author)
- Publisher: Telegram Books
- Publication Date: 7 Sept. 2009
- Language: English
- Print length: 310 pages
- ISBN-10: 1846590426
- ISBN-13: 9781846590429
Book Description
A nameless young university student in Saudi Arabia has no contact with men outside her family, so when the charming Dai seduces her, her feelings of guilt are overwhelmed by the need for intimacy. Her girlfriend Dai introduces her to a secret world of lesbian parties and love affairs, and it’s here that she meets Darin and falls in love for the first time. But Darin eventually gives in to family pressure and marries. Bereft, she begins dating men online and agrees to meet a young man called Omar in Lebanon. A truly explosive portrayal of life for a young lesbian in Saudi Arabia.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Siba al-Harez is a nom de plume. Given the subject of this debut novel, this is no bad thing. Even the name of the translator is not listed at the translator s request (as the copyright page announces). The Others is Saudi Arabia s, perhaps even the Gulf countries , first lesbian novel: published in Beirut in 2006, it swiftly became a bestseller. The identity of the author remains shrouded; all we are allowed to know is that she is a 26-year-old Saudi woman from Al Qatif. Al Qatif, on the eastern coast of the country, seems remote but the knowledge that this is a predominantly Shi ite region brings a different kind of particularity to bear on the remoteness: the Shi ites are an oppressed and heavily monitored minority group in the country. While this remains unarticulated in the novel, it can only magnify the isolation that comes with the narrator s knowledge of her sexual otherness in a country not known for its liberal attitudes. The unnamed 16-year-old narrator gives a raw and immediate account of her relationship with a glamorous, possessive, intense peer, named Dai, in a girls school. In his new book, Inside the Kingdom, Robert Lacey writes of how it is common for Saudi women, sealed off hermetically from any kind of male contact, to form lesbian attachments. The Others opens a door into one of the darkest and least-known corners of this society and the view is revelatory, sometimes shocking, always compelling. Who knew of the existence of a thriving online community indulging in homoerotic chats and interactions at night? Or of underground lesbian parties and trysts in hotels, all conducted with utmost secrecy? Despite the intricately metaphorical language of the book, and its dense, flammable subjectivity, one of the most conspicuous markers of the narratorial voice is the all-consuming sense of guilt, shame and fear. Inseparable from the erotic longing and intimacy that are at the heart of the book, it makes for a unique, not wholly pleasant reading experience. –Neel Mukherjee The Financial Times 15th November 2009
About the Author
Siba al-Harez is the pseudonym of a twenty-six-year-old Saudi woman from al-Qatif in Saudi Arabia. This is her first novel.
