Mirage

By Bandula Chandraratna

Book Overview

Within a closed Saudi Arabia kingdom, an unexceptional man, Sayeed, finds happiness with Lalifa, a girl who might have been beyond his reach had widowhood and misfortune not brought her within it. But... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0753812533
• ISBN13: 9780753812532
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: PHOENIX (ORIO)
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.6" x 5.1"

Customer Reviews

A Look Inside an Alien World

The title is the key to understanding Mirage. Chapters 1-23 are indeed a mirage, an ancient land of milk and honey, a delicate pastoral simplicity, a precarious balance of old and new as oil wealth and Westernization impinge of bedrock religious values. But in Chapters 24-25, the reality underlying the mirage erupts with all the fierce violence that characterizes much of the region today. Chandraratna got it right - weeks, months, perhaps years of tranquility suddenly shattered by piercing screams from an honor killing wherein the victim of the crime is executed. To confront another face of this reality from a Western perspective, read Hilary Mantel's (1988) Eight Months on Ghazzah Street: A Novel, a chilling experience which, like Mirage, may leave you puzzled until you know that alien world.