-
Access our Top 20
Books of 2024!
Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Read-Alikes
Zoë Ferraris moved to Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the first Gulf War to live with her then-husband and his extended family, a group of Saudi-Palestinian Bedouins who had never welcomed an American into their lives before. She first conceived the idea for Finding Nouf at a jacket bazaar in Jeddah, where her ex-husband bought a "Columbo" coat and proposed setting off to solve mysteries - though to Zoë the only mystery at the time was why they were at a jacket bazaar in the hottest country in the world. She has an M.F.A. from Columbia University and received first prize for mystery fiction at the Santa Barbara Writers' Conference in 2003. She currently lives in San Francisco with her teenage daughter.
Zoë Ferraris's website
This bio was last updated on 07/30/2017. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.
First of all, I think people would like to know your connection to Saudi Arabia,
so they don't think you're making this all up.
Well, actually, I made it up. But there's also a lot of real Saudi Arabia in
the book.
When I was nineteen, I got married to a Saudi-Palestinian Bedouin. We met in San
Francisco, and I fell completely in love with him. He was hilarious and
brilliant and over-the-top zany. He had come to America to study English. He
told his parents that once he was fluent, he would go back to Jeddah. So he
never became fluent. Learning English – actually, he called it "Languish" – was
just going to have to take forever.
We got married and had a daughter. The day she was born, he decided that we had
to visit his family in Jeddah. Just a short visit, you know, to show off his new
wife and kid. We wound up staying for almost a year. It turns out that you can't
just visit for a week or two. You have to stay until his mother stops having
heart episodes every time you go to the airport.
So you didn't get along with your mother-in-law?
Not after she convinced me that a liberal application of henna could
eliminate zits on your face forever. Thank god ...
Sophia Al-Maria is an artist, writer, and filmmaker. She studied comparative literature at the American University in Cairo, and aural and visual cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her work has been exhibited at ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Finding Nouf
Try:
The Girl Who Fell to Earth
by Sophia Al-Maria
Among other works, Kim Barnes is the author of Finding Caruso, A Country Called Home and two memoirs, In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country - a finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize - and Hungry for the World. ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Finding Nouf
Try:
In the Kingdom of Men
by Kim Barnes
We recommend 9 similar authors
.png)
The longest journey of any person is the journey inward
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
