A review by t_bone
Otto mesi a Ghazzah Street by Hilary Mantel

4.0

A book about an Englishwoman who goes to live in Saudi Arabia when her husband gets a job there. She doesn't like it. That's about the extent of the plot. But this is not a book of plot, despite the blurb's claims about suspense. It is mostly a very well written and thoroughly depressing account of life for women in Saudi Arabia at the time (1988, I think, I could check, but I won't). It must have been written from personal experience (I could check, but I won't), otherwise it is a remarkable piece of detailed imagining. I grew a bit tired of life in Saudi Arabia by the end of the book though. The heat and the oppression and the mysterious goings on really take it out of you. I won't be going back to Saudi Arabia any time soon, but I will go back to Mantel.