The Night of the Mi’raj by Zoe Ferraris
I know. You recently saw this book in your local bookshop, but it was over with the crime fiction. What kind of credibility can I expect if I don’t know a crime novel when I read one.
Well yes, there is a murder. And an investigation. But much like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil the murder only provides a means of telling a much bigger and more important story.
Ferraris sets her novel in modern Saudi Arabia. Nouf a young woman from a wealthy family runs away before her arranged marriage. Najir, desert guide, devout Muslim, and trusted friend of the family, is asked to investigate what happened. It is not long before a body is found and it becomes a murder investigation.
However, this book is not really about the murder. It is more a look at the way Saudi society works in the modern world. The medical examiner sympathetic to the investigation is a woman, and betrothed to the brother of the missing girl. Najir needs her help, but he is continually forced to cross the boundaries of proper behavior, according to the religious police. For a devout Muslim, this is frightfully difficult, but necessary in order to obtain justice for the poor girl.
In modern writing all too often the Muslim is the bad guy. Every one is obviously an evil terrorist out to destroy all civilisation. Ferraris provides her readers with an alternative view. Most Muslims are simply trying to find their way through the mass of rules and regulations strictly enforced in fundamentalist societies. Her characters are drawn strongly enough that they do not drown under the weight of these laws, and clever enough to find a way to achieve success in spite of them.
An important point of view in today’s world.
