Oklahoma-born author Zoë Ferrari's sojourn in Saudi Arabia
Zoë Ferraris' Ukrainian American grandmother thought her so spoiled that she would only marry a sheik. But Ferraris, then a San Francisco teen, didn't quite catch her meaning.
"I thought it was some fairy-tale punishment, having to marry a sheet, having to do all the [house] work," Ferraris said. "When I did get married, she said, 'I told you so.' "
Ferraris married not a sheik but a middle-class Saudi Arabian, who, upon hearing the story, good-naturedly accepted the "fabulously wealthy oil baron" stereotype. But neither grandmother nor granddaughter could have predicted the couple and their young daughter's two-week visit to Saudi Arabia would end up lasting nine months, or that it would inspire Ferraris' first novel, "Finding Nouf."
The book has won wide acclaim for its incisive portrayal of a conservative Muslim man's navigation of tightly rule-bound Saudi society as he tries to solve the mystery behind the suspicious death of a 16-year-old girl. And the novel has its own bit of a mystery: What compelled an Oklahoma-born woman to capture a culture that for most Americans remains mysterious at best and threatening at worst?
"When Americans think of Saudi Arabian men, they think they're abusers and they're cruel, that they enjoy the gender segregation or enforce it," Ferraris, 38, said recently at a Westwood hotel. "And sure, some of them do, but most just have to live with it."
Ferraris felt drawn to portraying such a man. Her main character, Nayir, is a gruff but sympathetic Palestinian living in Saudi Arabia who avoids directly speaking to or looking at women. He's unmarried, orphaned, sister-less, and consequently unfamiliar with the opposite sex -- until he's confronted with the murder of a friend's sister, which requires him to team up with a young female forensic scientist.
Ferraris minutely details Nayir's inner thoughts, such as when he first sees scientist Katya Hijazi: "He was surprised to see her first name on the tag -- it should have been as private as her hair or the shape of her body -- and it made her seem defiant. . . . He blushed again and turned away from her, trying not to turn completely but just enough to indicate that he wouldn't look at her. The woman's shoulders dropped slightly, which seemed to indicate that she'd noticed Nayir's discomfort and was disappointed by it."
