This is a novel that's not always a very easy read, but is is most certainly worth reading. Dahlia is one of a group of 3 Kuwaiti girls who, as youngsters, agree a pact that they will get married, as their society expects them to. As time goes in, it becomes clear that while her friends have married (with varying degrees of happiness), Dahlia remains unmarried and is now approaching her 30s. We see her mother's attempts to match her with eligible men, and we see Dahlia's resistance to these matches. It is only gradually that we see what lies behind this resistance, she is not just being contrary, she is deeply damaged and is unable to either deal with that damage, or the straitjackets that it becomes increasingly clear her family and their attittude to their society is keeping her in. She has had choices in her life, but has been unable to take them, when she is finally able to take a decision she wants to make, it is irrevocable and tears the family apart.
The novel jumps backwards & forwards in time, so that you don't discover her past at once, it appears through different episodes that gradually piece together to make a coherrent whole. It is a really good attempt to produce a story against the background of a very different cultural norm. Dahlia's society and familial expectations are not those I grew up in, and yet I can recognise those pressure and feel for Dahlia and her need to be herself, and not just something that she is being straitjacketed into being. It's powerful and moving. It is also worth mentioning that this is the second novel I've read this month where there is abuse and that while it is not described in explicit detail, there is sufficient detail and trauma that some people may find this upsetting. I think ti should be read regardless, we don't lve in a perfect world and acknowledging suffering is a step to understanding. ( )