Raja Alem
Raja Alem رجاء عالم
Raja Alem is a Saudi novelist known for her mysteries. She began publishing her work in the cultural supplement of the Riyadh newspaper and began writing experimental plays for the theatre. She has won many prizes, the most recent of which was in 2005 – the Arabic Women’s Creative Writing Prize on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of UNESCO; and the Lebanese Literary Club Prize, in Paris, 2008. She was the first woman to win the International Prize for Arabic Fiction for her mystery Dove's Necklace. Some of her works have been translated into English and Spanish.
Translated Titles by Raja Alem
It all begins when a naked female body is discovered in the Lane of Many Heads in Mecca and no one claims it. Detective Nasser digs into the emails of a local woman, thinking the body might be her, and discovers whirls of crime, intrigue, and love — all as we hear from the woman’s neighbor, a man who would really, really like the rapidly changing world around them to just slow down.
November 1979. Violence has broken out in the holiest site of Islam after a charismatic rebel and his devoted followers have announced the coming of the Mahdi and seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Among the insurgents is a young woman, Sarab, disguised as a man. As the horror and chaos of the siege reach their peak, she escapes and encounters a French officer from the opposing side. They form an unexpected bond, as hostility turns to attraction, but the violence of both of their pasts will return to haunt them.
My Thousand & One Nights : a novel of Mecca
Raja Alem grew up in Mecca at a time when the holy city was on the cusp of changing from medieval to modern. In this vanished Mecca, vividly brought to life again in My Thousand and One Nights, women hold center stage—especially Jummo, the wildly passionate daughter of the Water Carriers’ Sheik. This faraway time and setting become compellingly real as we follow the intimate drama of Jummo’s life, the tragic arc of her affair with her childhood sweetheart and her lifelong love for the mysterious Sidi Wadhana, a more-than-human emissary from the Netherworld. Jummo’s Mecca is a different world, with different narrative strategies, but the dramatic problems are universal: how lethal is love? how dangerous are woman? And how sensual is the yearning for immortality?
Raja al-Sanea
Raja al-Sanea رجاء بنت عبد الله الصانع
Raja al-Sanea is a Saudi writer who became famous through her novel Girls of Riyadh, or Banat al-Riyadh. The book was first published in Lebanon in 2005 and translated into English in 2007. The book was long-listed for the Dublin Literary Award in 2009. Al-Sanea grew up in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the daughter of a family of doctors. She currently lives in Chicago where she is a dental graduate student. She received her bachelor's degree in Dentistry from King Saud University in 2005. Her novel and lifestyle have caused controversy especially among the conservative sections of the Saudi society, but more liberal-minded individuals consider her a role model.
Translated Titles by Raja al-Sanea
Al-Sanea’s tale of the personal struggles of four young upper-class women offers westerners an unprecedented glimpse into a society often veiled from view. Living in restrictive Riyadh but traveling all over the globe, these modern Saudi women literally and figuratively shed traditional garb as they search for love, fulfillment, and their place somewhere in between western society and their Islamic home.