Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Hip Hop Dance
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://mohadoha.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY: Qatar
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in India; immigrated to U.S.; married; children.
EDUCATION:University of Florida, Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author and educator. Northwestern University, Doha, Qatar, adjunct professor of writing and literature; former assistant dean of student affairs, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar, beginning 2005; also taught at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Qatar campus. Former host, “Cover to Cover” book show, Qatar Foundation Radio; formerly worked at Bloomsbury Qatar (publisher).
AWARDS:Best Indie book citation, 2013, for From Dunes to Dior; Best Indie Book Award for Romance, 2013, for Love Comes Later; winner, She Writes We Love New Novelists competition.
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals, including AudioFile Magazine, Expat Arrivals, Explore Qatar, Qatar Explorer, QatarClick, Speak without Interruption, Variety Arabia, Woman Today, Woman, and Writers and Artists Yearbook. Former associate editor, Vox.
SIDELIGHTS
Indian-born author Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar grew up in the United States, but since 2005 she has lived in the Arab Gulf state of Qatar, where she teaches writing at Northwestern University’s branch campus. Her academic work stresses ideas that center on gender and postcolonial theory. “As a scholar of gender and literature … Rajakumar started a blog to further explore these issues,” explained Rhett Morgan in Kirkus Reviews Online. “She soon used self-publishing to find a global audience for her fiction—like 2009’s romance Love Comes Later or 2015’s murder mystery The Migrant Report—which spans various genres but still centers on fundamental questions about racial and immigrant identities.” “Moving to the Arabian desert was fortuitous in many ways,” the author declared in a third-person biographical narrative found on her home page, the Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar website, “since that’s where she met her husband, [and] had two sons.”
Rajakumar came to the United States when she was very young and attended American schools. “My parents and I moved here when I was nine years old with my younger brother. We had been living in Canada, but my dad had heard so much about America that he had to see it for himself,” Rajakumar recalled in an interview in Medium. “I remember moving to California in elementary school and feeling like a whole new world had been opened up to me. Before that my world had been mostly made up of Indian people in the academic communities where our father worked. California was the first time I made my own friends and realized there were differences between us.” It was in school in California that she took her first steps toward becoming a published author. “My first short story I wrote in middle school for a favorite teacher,” the author said in a We Do Write interview. “My father told me to use my time more usefully on my homework.”
The American writer and academic moved to Qatar after completing her Ph.D. at the University of Miami, where she worked as an associate dean for the branch campus of Northwestern University. Later she worked for Georgetown University and Virginia Commonwealth University, teaching writing and literature. While working there she published her monograph Haram in the Harem: Domestic Narratives in India and Algeria, which showed how Muslim women caught up in the Partition of India and the Algerian Revolution used fiction as a way to undermine sexism in the male-dominated revolutionary movements. Rajakumar “has helped foster a literary community in a country that restricts freedom of expression,” wrote Ursula Lindsey in the Chronicle of Higher Education. She coedited Qatari Voices: A Celebration of New Writers, and later moved into publishing fiction featuring Qatari characters and situations. At the same time, Lindsey observed, although Rajakumar and her fellow academics “have come here to help push an ambitious education agenda, … they must also observe unspoken rules … about what can be said or studied.” “Ms. Rajakumar herself has run afoul of those restrictions,” Lindsey continued. “[In 2012] her … novel, Love Comes Later, was banned in Qatar. The Ministry of Culture offers no explanation for why it blacklisted the book, which tells the story of two Qatari cousins who are betrothed in an arranged marriage. Her situation reflects the tricky landscape American academics must navigate in Qatar.”
Most of Rajakumar’s works, fiction and nonfiction alike, look at the roles women play in Qatari society. Mommy but Still Me, the author explained in an interview appearing in Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews, “is the modern woman’s guide to switching from jet setter to incubator, Mommy but Still Me retells the story of a first-time mother with humor and honesty. From sex with a purpose to ankles swelling into cankles, this is a no-holds barred look at the all the changes, big and small; from knowing ‘hipster’ as a term that describes your generation to using it describe where you like to carry things.”
Love Comes Later is a novel about marriage and the ways it complicates relations in modern Qatar. As the novel opens, young Abdulla has lost his wife and little child in a car accident. With no family of his own, he returns to his family compound and, after a period of mourning, discovers that a marriage has been arranged with him. His intended is his cousin Hind—who is thoroughly uninterested in the match. “Longing for independence, she insists on being allowed to complete a master’s degree in England, a condition Abdulla readily accepts,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. However, “she finds an unlikely friend in Indian-American Sangita,” falls for Sangita’s brother Ravi and, when Abdulla shows up unexpectedly, he falls for Sangita. “One of the things I love about this book is the balance it achieves between pointing out the flaws in the life style of Qatar and accepting said lifestyle as a work in progress,” said Maggie Boyd in All About Romance. “It is clear that the culture is completely chauvinistic and unjustly authoritarian against women. The author does a good job, though, of pointing that out without coming down in harsh judgment on the people trapped in the system. Abdulla may have more freedom than Hind or even Sangita but he is not completely autonomous. He too has to bow to the authority of his elders.” “Readers wanting to peer into Arab customs,” stated a Publishers Weekly reviewer, “will enjoy the anthropological details that provide intriguing insights.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Chronicle of Higher Education, January 30, 2015, Ursula Lindsey, “Qatar Inspires a Writing Instructor Despite Censorship.”
Kirkus Reviews, August 28, 2012, review of Love Comes Later.
Middle East, December, 2016, Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar, “No Place for Women.”
Publishers Weekly, February 12, 2018, review of Love Comes Later, p. 63.
Reference & Research Book News, November, 2009, review of Haram in the Harem: Domestic Narratives in India and Algeria; April, 2012, review of Hip Hop Dance.
ONLINE
All About Romance, https://allaboutromance.com/ (August 23, 2016), review of Love Comes Later.
Kirkus Reviews Online, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ (April 27, 2018), Rhett Morgan, “Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar: Connecting Readers to Global Stories via Self-publishing.”
Life of Umm, https://ummon.wordpress.com/ (September 30, 2015), review of The Migrant Report.
Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews, http://lisahaseltonsreviewsandinterviews.blogspot.com/ (February 13, 2012), “Interview with Writer Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar.”
Medium, https://medium.com/ (August 8, 2018), “I Am Living Proof of the American Dream: with Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar.”
Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar website, http://mohadoha.com (August 8, 2018), author profile.
National, https://www.thenational.ae/ (August 21, 2016), Rob Garratt, “Doha-based Author’s Novel Inspired by Crime in Qatar.”
San Francisco Review of Books, http://www.sanfranciscoreviewofbooks.com/ (February 25, 2018), review of The Migrant Report.
We Do Write, https://we-do-write.blogspot.com/ (June 21, 2012), “Interview with Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar.”
ABOUT ME
Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar is a South Asian American who has lived in Qatar since 2005. Moving to the Arabian desert was fortuitous in many ways since that’s where she met her husband, had two sons, and became a writer. She has since published eight e-books, including a momoir for first time mothers, Mommy But Still Me; a guide for aspiring writers, So You Want to Sell a Million Copies; a short story collection, Coloured and Other Stories; and a novel about women’s friendships, Saving Peace.
Her coming of age novel, An Unlikely Goddess, won the SheWrites New Novelist competition in 2011.
Her recent books have focused on various aspects of life in Qatar. From Dunes to Dior, named as a Best Indie book in 2013, is a collection of essays related to her experiences as a female South Asian American living in the Arabian Gulf. Love Comes Later was the winner of the Best Indie Book Award for Romance in 2013 and is a literary romance set in Qatar and London. The Dohmestics is an inside look into compound life, the day-to-day dynamics between housemaids and their employers.
After she joined the e-book revolution, Mohana dreams in plotlines. Learn more about her work on her website at www.mohadoha.com or follow her latest on Twitter: @moha_doha.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Interview with writer Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar
Today we get to find out a little about Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar (Mohadoha), and her book Mommy but Still Me as she travels along a virtual book tour.
Bio:
Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar is a writer who has lived in Qatar since 2005. She has a PhD from the University of Florida with a focus on gender and postcolonial theory. Her dissertation project was published as Haram in the Harem (Peter Lang, 2009) a literary analysis of the works of three Muslim women authors in India, Algeria, and Pakistan. She is the creator and co-editor of five books in the Qatar Narratives series, as well as the Qatari Voices anthology which features essays by Qataris on modern life in Doha (Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing, 2010). Her research has been published in numerous journals and anthologies.
She was the Associate Editor of Vox, a fashion and lifestyle magazine based in Doha and a winner of the She Writes We Love New Novelists competition. She has been a regular contributor for Variety Arabia, AudioFile Magazine, Explore Qatar, Woman Today, The Woman, Writers and Artists Yearbook, QatarClick, Expat Arrivals, Speak Without Interruption and Qatar Explorer. She hosted two seasons of the Cover to Cover book show on Qatar Foundation Radio.
Currently Mohana is working on a collection of essays related to her experiences as a female South Asian American living in the Arabian Gulf and a novel based in Qatar. She believes words can help us understand ourselves and others. Catch up on her latest via her blog or follow her on Twitter @moha_doha.
Welcome, Mohana. Please tell us about your current release.
This is the modern woman's guide to switching from jet setter to incubator, Mommy but Still Me retells the story of a first-time mother with humor and honesty. From sex with a purpose to ankles swelling into cankles, this is a no-holds barred look at the all the changes, big and small; from knowing "hipster" as a term that describes your generation to using it describe where you like to carry things.
What inspired you to write this book?
I didn’t want to forget anything because of the sleep deprivation in any of these stages so I searched for a way to hold on to some of the funnier, difficult, joyous moments. I kept a blog for about two years to record the process of trying to get pregnant, being pregnant, and then having and raising a baby.
What exciting story are you working on next?
I’m dipping myself completely into the world of fiction and the inner lives of people that often don’t appear as mainstream characters. I can’t wait to share these unique individuals with my readers!
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
About a year ago
Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I write probably one day a week and a few hours scattered between picking up a child from nursery, exercising because of said child, and teaching undergraduates how to avoid bad prose.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I work on more than one project at a time (3 novels are in various stages at the moment, and one collection of essays).
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
An American football coach. No idea why. Football just seemed so exciting!
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
I hope you relate to the struggles my characters go through to find happiness and see in them parts of your own journey.
I wrote this book as I wrestled with the idea of becoming a mother my way. I started a firm conviction that I would not disappear into a creature with applesauce in her hair, unable to sustain a conversation about anything other than sleeping schedules and teething remedies. And I ended--- well you'll have to read the book! For those starting the journey, I hope you know you're not alone in the worries and dreams that plague you while contemplating the biggest change of your life. And for those who are second, third, or multiple timers, I hope you find aspects of my story that resonate with your own. If these anecdotes do, or don't, drop me a note and tell me why.
Here is a book trailer for my book, too.
All tour dates and blog stops are here.
Thanks for being here today, Mohana!
I Am Living Proof Of The American Dream: With Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar
It sounds silly but living abroad makes you appreciate the little things that are so easy to do in the US. Things like mail order clothes or asking your doctor questions during routine appointments; we take these things for granted but they are part of what makes living in the US so wonderful and what other countries aspire toward.
I had the pleasure of interviewing award winning author and academic Mohana Rajakumar.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I was born in one country (India), raised in a second (the United States), and living with my children in a third (Qatar).
Was there a particular trigger point that made you emigrate to the US? Can you tell a story?
My parents and I moved here when I was 9 years old with my younger brother. We had been living in Canada but my dad had heard so much about America that he had to see it for himself.
Can you tell us the story of how you came to the USA? What was that experience like?
I remember moving to California in elementary school and feeling like a whole new world had been opened up to me. Before that my world had been mostly made up of Indian people in the academic communities where our father worked. California was the first time I made my own friends and realized there were differences between us.
Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped make the move more manageable? Can you share a story?
My second grade teacher sent me to the library with the African American students in our class to be interviewed by the local reporter for the newspaper so that we could share what Martin Luther King Jr meant to us. I had never heard about him so I was panicked to let the reporter and my teacher down. We were posed around a book for a photo and during the photo shoot I read as much as I could about him; when it came my turn to answer the question, I said “He went to jail for what he believed in” because that’s all I knew about the Civil Rights movement. That moment of racial confusion set me on a journey of discovery which lasted through my twenties.
So how are things going today?
I am so encouraged by the work I see young people doing and how much more inclusive American society is these days. We don’t talk about assimilation anymore; we encourage people to balance both (or multiple) identities. This is wonderful progress and gives me hope for our future as an egalitarian society.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Culture shapes who we are, the decisions we make, and the lives we lead. This deeply personal element is the cornerstone of all of my books because understanding others helps us understand ourselves. Whether it’s immigrants in America or expats in Qatar, my novels explore the stories of people who have largely been at the margins.
You have first hand experience with the US immigration system. If you had the power, which three things would you change to improve the system?
I can think of two simple ones:
1) Train everyone who works at border patrol to begin with “welcome to America” and a smile. Lines are so long, people overworked, that they don’t realize the impact a little friendliness can have for someone — especially at international airport arrivals. This doesn’t take away from their ability to enforce the rules.
2) When people are sent for secondary screening, provide access to bathrooms. This seems really basic but people can be held there for thirty minutes or longer and often with their children without access to restrooms.
Can you share “5 keys to achieving the American dream” that others can learn from you? Please share a story or example for each.
One of the things you hear repeated over and over is that hard work can get you very far in America. That is very true — and I would add that maximize the resources available to you. As a kid this meant being involved in as many activities that interest you in high school from theater to sports to languages. Those activities will then lead to new relationships, skills, etc. that help you develop and grow.
Land mass wise, America is larger than Europe, and that means you can move around to see which state suits your career, lifestyle and personality. Many people don’t go from coast to coast — Florida to Oregon for example — so take advantage of the diversity within the US to see what might suit you best. My family certainly did this as we moved from the west coast to the east coast and then I moved up north on my own as an adult.
We know that the US needs improvement. But are there 3 things that make you optimistic about the US’s future?
Young people today really give me hope; activists like the Parkland high school survivors who speak up for what they believe in make it easier for all of us to stand up for each other.
It sounds silly but living abroad makes you appreciate the little things that are so easy to do in the US. Things like mail order clothes or asking your doctor questions during routine appointments; we take these things for granted but they are part of what makes living in the US so wonderful and what other countries aspire toward.
I love that we are seeing more diversity in film, theater, and music produced by American companies and artists. This diversity, like the recent Broadway hit Hamilton, or the film Black Panther, shows the world that the US has much more to offer than simple pop culture.
Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this. :-)
I’m a morning person so breakfast is my favorite meal. There are so many brilliant people to brainstorm with … I would love to chat with actor Mindy Kaling and compare our growing ups as we share lots of similarities.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar
Connecting readers to global stories via self-publishing
By Rhett Morgan on April 27, 2018
Comment Email this article
After a move to Doha in 2005, South Asian–American MohanalakshmiRajakumar found herself with an abundance of time to contemplate women in the modern Middle East and the expat experience. As a scholar of gender and literature teaching at American universities in Qatar, Rajakumar started a blog to further explore these issues. She soon used self-publishing to find a global audience for her fiction—like 2009’s romance Love Comes Later or 2015’s murder mystery The Migrant Report—which spans various genres but still centers on fundamental questions about racial and immigrant identities. Rajakumar has also released guides for aspiring writers and written academic articles like “She Needs a Website of Her Own,” exploring the new opportunities for women and minorities offered by the expanding world of self-publishing.
How did your move to Doha impact your writing?
When I first moved here, so many interesting things were happening to me: new country, new job, new minority (rather than being the only nonwhite person somewhere, I was now the only non-Muslim), and writing was the best way to channel or process all those novel experiences. It was after my fifth time hearing that Kindle books was the place to be if you were an author that I decided to take three years of rejected manuscripts and release them as e-books.
What do you hope to show readers about life in Qatar?
That people in the Middle East are not all militants or abused women but adults with hopes, dreams, aspirations just like them. I am writing for people who love to travel and might not have the budget to keep discovering new places. Book club members who might have been Peace Corps members and want to stay current about the world outside their own. Also for expat Muslims who are tired of the stereotypes in mainstream media and popular literature.
Is it challenging to reach an audience from halfway around the world?
Rajakumar cover In fact, self-publishing makes it much easier to reach people worldwide because of the large platform it gives you. Social media means that often it feels as if there is no distance at all between me and readers despite our being in different locations. Having a blog means that people know they will hear from me on a weekly basis and can participate in conversations via Goodreads or my Facebook author page.
Why do you like exploring new genres?
All my books start with a central question, and I can't stop asking questions about this fascinating world we live in. When I started my Crimes in Arabia series, it was with the idea that the Arabian Gulf and Scandinavian or Nordic noir have many similarities: small countries, oil rich, entitled citizenry, with many noncitizens living among them, extreme weather conditions. What kinds of crime happen in a place where stealing can get your hand cut off in reprisal?
Do you think that self-publishing is opening doors for more diversity and women in publishing?
What self-publishing has done is taken away the gatekeeping nature of publishers-editors-agents between the reader and the text. It used to be that big houses would see it as their service to the industry to also publish books that were “important” or “promising” even if they weren't big sellers. Now, with the profit margins really squeezed by online reading and the digital revolution, publishing a book is harder than ever. So self-publishing is a way to reach readers for writers of those smaller “idea” books that are getting rejected even more often than in the past.
Rhett Morgan is a writer and translator based in Paris.
Thursday, 21 June 2012
Interview with Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar
Today we're chatting with author Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar about her latest book, FROM DUNES TO DIOR.
Hi, Mohana! Tell us a bit about yourself.
I'm a mother, a professor, a writer, and a happy wife. Trying to live the modern woman's dream, knowing I can't have it all at the same time, but I can enjoy most of it.
How long have you been writing?
For about 10 years. My first short story I wrote in middle school for a favorite teacher. My father told me to use my time more usefully on my homework. Took me a long time (10 years) to go from my first story from an elective in graduate school to my first ebook.
Tell us about FROM DUNES TO DIOR. What's the story about?
Called everything from the world's richest to fattest nation, Qatar has been on the breakneck path towards change for several decades. The capital city Doha, is where our family of three has lived since 2005.
FROM DUNES TO DIOR (ebook available on Amazon.com) is not the stuff of newspaper headlines (they made their money from oil! Thirty years ago everyone was living in tents!) but real life stories about being a South Asian American who lives here (no, I don't have to cover my hair, and yes, I can drive).
How did the idea of the story come to you?
I'd been thinking about it for over five years and writing a few pieces here and there along the way.
Do you have a critique group/partner or beta readers, or do you self-edit?
Yes, I do all of the above, and founded the Doha Writers Workshop (a local group of writers) as a critique group/moral support. But for the final edits, I use a professional. It's too hard to edit your own work.
Are you a planner or a pantser?
Planner! Type A... guilty.
What do you absolutely have to have nearby when writing?
Pandora! (Or a music source...) and chocolate never hurts. Lately I've taken a healthy turn and eat fruit while drinking green tea. Not making that up!
If you could have any super power, what would it be?
To erase bad memories.
Nice choice! Quick writing test! Use the following words in a sentence: hyperventilate, hypochondriac, and hippopotamus.
The hippopotamus was hyperventilating because he was a hypochondriac.
Here’s the part where you thank the people who are supporting you. Let's hear your shout outs.
Thank you to RachelintheOc who is my marketing guru.
And finally, where can people find you and your books online?
http://www.mohanalakshmi.com/books/
Thanks so much for chatting with us today, Mohana. I wish you lots of success!
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Print Marked Items
Love Comes Later
Publishers Weekly.
265.7 (Feb. 12, 2018): p63.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Love Comes Later
Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar. Mohanalakshmi
Rajakumar, $12 mass market (266p) ISBN 9780-615-91683-5
Rajakumar's pedestrian romance uncovers the tensions of a long-arranged engagement between two Qataris
who want nothing to do with marriage. After Abdulla's pregnant wife dies in a car crash, he refuses to
remarry. When his family finally arranges his marriage to cousin Hind, he is relieved that she insists on
completing a master's degree in England first. Secretly rebellious Hind relishes the freedom of Europe,
happily postponing her wedding for a year. She moves in with an Indian-American classmate, Sangita,
whose impulsive brother, Ravi, turns Hind's head. When Abdulla arrives in London unannounced, Sangita's
attempts to occupy him (and thereby hide Hind's clandestine trip to India with Ravi) blossom into mutual
attraction. The characters' tendency to blurt trivial facts makes for some awkward conversation. More
disorienting is Rajakumar's odd pacing, which makes Hind's year abroad fly by while dragging out the
character development. Readers wanting to peer into Arab customs will enjoy the anthropological details
that provide intriguing insights into Qatari culture, but the story's wooden dialogue and obvious ending
disappoint. (BookLife)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Love Comes Later." Publishers Weekly, 12 Feb. 2018, p. 63. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A528615506/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=cb78fba2.
Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A528615506
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No Place for women
Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar
The Middle East.
(Dec. 2016):
COPYRIGHT 2016 IC Publications Ltd.
http://www.icpublications.com/
Full Text:
No Place for women
(Crimes in Arabia -Book two)
By Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar
Published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 9781535077989
Price [pounds sterling]7.99 paperback
Finding a missing construction worker makes Ali a good man but not a stellar detective--at least not in the
eyes of the national intelligence unit. His assignment to a new vice squad could be the road to redemption.
When his undercover agent discovers the dead body of an expat teacher, what began as a safe bet puts his
reputation on the line. Soon the burned remains of another woman are found in the desert, and Ali and
Manu have no choice but to enlist the help of his fiancee Maryam to explore how the two murders may be
connected. Do they have the country's first serial killer on their hands? And, if so, how can they ever hope
to stop him? Set against the backdrop of the Arabian Gulf, readers are drawn into a world of intrigue,
romance, and danger. This is the second book in the Crimes in Arabia series.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
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Rajakumar, Mohanalakshmi. "No Place for women." The Middle East, Dec. 2016. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A487929471/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f8c68b25.
Accessed 15 July 2018.
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Qatar Inspires a Writing Instructor
Despite Censorship
Ursula Lindsey
The Chronicle of Higher Education.
61.20 (Jan. 30, 2015):
COPYRIGHT 2015 Chronicle of Higher Education, Inc.
http://chronicle.com/section/About-the-Chronicle/83
Full Text:
Byline: Ursula Lindsey
Doha, Qatar -- The writer Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar has spent a decade in Doha, the fast-growing capital
of the small, wealthy emirate of Qatar. In a memoir of her time there so far, From Dunes to Dior, she
describes it as a place that "resists and embraces modernization" and as "full of contradictions,
opportunities, and challenges."
An adjunct professor of writing and literature, Ms. Rajakumar has had her own share of all of those
features. As an author and an instructor who works at Northwestern University's branch campus here, she
has helped foster a literary community in a country that restricts freedom of expression.
Yet Ms. Rajakumar herself has run afoul of those restrictions. Last year her latest novel, Love Comes Later,
was banned in Qatar. The Ministry of Culture offers no explanation for why it blacklisted the book, which
tells the story of two Qatari cousins who are betrothed in an arranged marriage.
Her situation reflects the tricky landscape American academics must navigate in Qatar, which also hosts
programs operated by Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, and Texas A&M, among other Western universities.
Mr. Rajakumar and her colleagues have come here to help push an ambitious education agenda, but they
must also observe unspoken rules (http://chronicle.com/article/Qatar-Welcomes-American/143087/) about
what can be said or studied.
Despite her censored novel, Ms. Rajakumar remains enthusiastic about living and working as an expatriate
academic. She says she was willing to make changes to enable the book's publication in Qatar.
"I'm a pragmatist," she says. "I was ready to put a big fat 'Qatar edition' sticker on the book-and then people
who were interested could look for the international edition."
Books Built on Questions
A daughter of Indian academics who emigrated to the United States, Ms. Rajakumar, 36, arrived in Doha in
2005, to serve as assistant dean of student affairs at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in
Qatar. A few years later, while working at Bloomsbury Qatar, a branch of the British publisher, she decided
to try her hand at writing. "I thought: Wait a minute, I'm as good as some of these authors," she says.
While pursuing her literary goals, she also encouraged others to do the same. She started teaching writing
and founded the Doha Writers' Workshop, the first group of its kind in the country. Its meetings made her
aware of the many stories Qataris were interested in telling.
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With support from the U.S. State Department and from Qatar University, she established the Qatar
Narrative Series, with an open call for essays by female residents of Qatar. At the time, says Ms.
Rajakumar, "People said, 'It's such a private culture, they value anonymity, they don't want to lose face.
You'll never get them to sign their name.'" But the series was a success. From 2008 to 2011, Ms. Rajakumar
co-edited four anthologies of Qatari writing. (http://www.amazon.com/Qatari-Voices-CarolHenderson/dp/9992142251)
Photo by Essdras M. Suarez/EMS Photography
Ms. Rajakumar, with two of her former students from Qatar: a[umlaut]"I could still be writing about this
place in another 10 years. There are so many layers a[umlaut]and so many different types of people. It's the
perfect place for fiction."
She uses the collections in the writing classes she teaches. It helps to show students "a book of published
essays by people they can relate to," says Ms. Rajakumar, who has also taught at Virginia Commonwealth
University's Qatar campus.
Ms. Rajakumar herself has written half a dozen books, published on Amazon. In the spring of 2014, she
released Love Comes Later, the novel about young Qataris trying to find the right partner.
"All of my books are built around a question," explains Ms. Rajakumar. A major one for the young Qatari
would-be writers she'd spent time with was: "Who are we going to marry? Is there any chance for love?"
With Love Comes Later she imagined an answer.
When her distributor's agent let her know the book was banned in Qatar, Ms. Rajakumar was surprised. She
had anticipated being asked to make some changes for the Qatari edition (a common requirement for local
publication and distribution), and was prepared to do so. "As a writer," she says, "if you don't have readers,
you might as well not be writing."
Neither Virginia Commonwealth, where Ms. Rajakumar was working at the time, nor any of the other
Western universities publicly questioned the ban. Responses from faculty colleagues varied, she says, with
some giving her "high fives" and others asking, "How are you still here?"
Unpredictable Censorship
Justin D. Martin, an assistant professor of journalism at Northwestern's campus in Qatar, says that because
the case did not receive much publicity, most academics in Qatar were unaware of it. Those who were may
have felt it wasn't that significant. "The banning of a print book in Qatar doesn't mean much," he says. "It's
mostly symbolic. You can still access the book through e-readers."
Ms. Rajakumar's book is just one of many titles that have been banned-there is no official list, and the
authorities do not publicize or explain their decisions, which don't follow a discernible pattern. Several
other works about Qatar that seem more critical or controversial than Ms. Rajakumar's have been
distributed and discussed at the foreign universities, notes Mr. Martin. Ms. Rajakumar believes that the
authorities reject "non-Qataris writing about Qataris."
The literary scene here is growing, but in 2013 a renowned local poet was given a 15-year jail sentence for a
poem that criticized the former emir. Qatar wishes to present an image of openness and modernity to the
world, hosting top universities, new museums, and international sporting events. But it remains culturally
conservative and politically authoritarian. The question of freedom of expression, says Ms. Rajakumar,
"will keep coming up and expanding."
Despite such concerns, Ms. Rajakumar continues to find the emirate a source of inspiration. Her writing and
her knowledge of Qatar feed each other. Needing to stage particular scenes-one, say, in a male majlis, the
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room in Qatari homes where men gather to discuss important matters-pushes her to acquire new
information.
"I could still be writing about this place in another 10 years," she says. "There are so many layers and so
many different types of people. It's the perfect place for fiction."
In some ways the ban will help her write her next book. The censorship "freed me to write about anything I
want because it will never be distributed here," she says. "I'm not writing with that guy on my shoulder
anymore."
Her next book will be a crime thriller set in migrant workers' camps.
Ursula Lindsey writes about branch campuses, academic freedom, and other aspects of higher education in
the Middle East. Email her at ulindsey.chronicle@gmail.com.
Correction (1/26/2015, 9:31 a.m.): The second picture caption with this article originally misidentified the
two people with Ms. Rajakumar. They are graduate students at Qatar University and at Georgetown
University's Qatar campus, not at Northwestern University's campus in the Persian Gulf emirate. The
caption has been updated to reflect this correction.
CAPTION(S):
Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar, a[umlaut]an American writing instructor, a[umlaut]has helped start a literary
a[umlaut]community in the Persian Gulfa[umlaut] emirate of Qatar. But last year her novel about an
arranged marriage there was banned.
Ms. Rajakumar, with two of her two former students from Qatar: a[umlaut]"I could still be writing about
this place in another 10 years. There are so many layers a[umlaut]and so many different types of people. It's
the perfect place for fiction."
By Ursula Lindsey
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Lindsey, Ursula. "Qatar Inspires a Writing Instructor Despite Censorship." The Chronicle of Higher
Education, 30 Jan. 2015. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A402007229/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=879ad6df. Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A402007229
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Harem in the harem; domestic narratives
in India and Algeria
Reference & Research Book News.
24.4 (Nov. 2009):
COPYRIGHT 2009 Ringgold, Inc.
http://www.ringgold.com/
Full Text:
9781433107122
Harem in the harem; domestic narratives in India and Algeria.
Rajakumar, Mohanalakshmi.
Peter Lang Publishing Inc
2009
118 pages
$62.95
Hardcover
Postcolonial studies; v.8
PK2173
Rajakumar (writer, educator, literature scholar) delves into the differences in nationalist discussions of
women and the way women writers perceive the experience of women in three distinct contexts: the middle
class Muslim reform movement, the Algerian Revolution, and the Partition of India. A common element of
all three events was that male scholars, politicians, and revolutionaries discussed women, their behavior,
their bodies, and dress. The underlying theme of those writings was that women were best protected in their
homes and subject to the authority of their families, particularly male authority. But for the writers in this
study, the real danger to women was in that very sphere of male privilege and influence, the home. These
texts illustrate how fiction was able to allow women a safe outlet for challenging traditional systems of
power.
([c]2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Harem in the harem; domestic narratives in India and Algeria." Reference & Research Book News, Nov.
2009. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A211161839/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ae5e3ddf. Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A211161839
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Hip hop dance
Reference & Research Book News.
27.2 (Apr. 2012):
COPYRIGHT 2012 Ringgold, Inc.
http://www.ringgold.com/
Full Text:
9780313378454
Hip hop dance.
Rajakumar, Mohanalakshmi.
Greenwood Press
2012
121 pages
$37.00
Hardcover
The American dance floor
GV1796
For students and general readers, Rajakumar, a writer, educator, and literature scholar who specializes in
gender and postcolonial theory, provides an overview of hip hop dance, music, and culture in its historical,
social, and cultural context. She describes the origins and development of hip hop culture; break dancing, its
cultural and musical links, moves, routines, crews, b-girls, and portrayal on TV and in film; the rise of
commercial hip hop music; issues such as rappers as gangstas, race, East vs. West Coast feuds, and the
sexualization of women; and female responses to male rappers.
([c]2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Hip hop dance." Reference & Research Book News, Apr. 2012. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A284979729/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=00041e48.
Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A284979729
Love Comes Later
Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar
Buy This Book
Location, location, location. That’s a popular mantra which discusses what is believed to be the most important selling point of any piece of property. I can’t speak to the effectiveness of it in terms of real estate sales but it‘s certainly an important selling point to me vis-à-vis book buying. That’s because I love armchair adventuring, exploring a culture through the eyes and words of writers. Love Comes Later added an important “stamp” to my armchair adventuring passport – I had never before read a love story set in Qatar. While this book is technically more women’s fiction than romance, the whole of the story revolves around love and marriage; how our culture influences our thoughts, feelings and actions regarding that issue and how, sometimes, our heart throws all that influence out the window.
Life can turn on a dime. Abdulla’s mind is full of work when he comes home one fateful afternoon, fully expecting to find his wife and a hot meal waiting for him. What he hears are the cries of wailing women. Assuming something has happened to his mother or one of his older Aunties, he approaches only to learn it is his wife and unborn child who have died in a horrible car accident. As if that weren’t bad enough, on the day of the funeral one of his uncles leaves his own wife and causes yet more turmoil in the family. In Abdulla’s mind grief and heartache become linked to the word marriage. He knows he will never love or wed again.
That’s the plan anyway. His culture (and family) dictate a different course. As the oldest grandchild of a successful man he needs to bring fresh male heirs into the clan. They allow him a three year mourning period and then arrange a marriage with his cousin Hind. The two barely know each other but the pressure on both of them is severe. When Hind insists on being allowed to do a master’s course in London before the wedding, Abdulla agrees with some relief. The yearlong separation will give him time to find an adequate excuse to end the engagement.
Hind is both delighted and annoyed to have her condition met. Delighted to do the course she is interested in, annoyed that she is allowed to do so only because Abdulla has agreed to the arrangement. Male control of her life is one of the things she looks forward to leaving behind while in England. London provides her other freedoms undreamt of at home, such as friendships her mother would likely not approve of. Her roommate a friendly, liberated Indian-American woman named Sangita is one such person. All is bliss for Hind until the clock starts counting down towards her wedding date. Realizing that time is running out, she takes a huge risk and plans a fling which will give her a chance to determine what she wants from life.
Abdulla, on the other hand, knows exactly what he wants – to stop the marriage. When he realizes it is do or die time he takes a furtive trip to London planning to speak to Hind and work out a way to avoid their nuptials. But it is not Hind who answers the apartment door and meeting the woman who does changes the course of his entire life.
One of the things I love about this book is the balance it achieves between pointing out the flaws in the life style of Qatar and accepting said lifestyle as a work in progress. It is clear that the culture is completely chauvinistic and unjustly authoritarian against women. The author does a good job, though, of pointing that out without coming down in harsh judgment on the people trapped in the system. Abdulla may have more freedom than Hind or even Sangita but he is not completely autonomous. He too has to bow to the authority of his elders and family expectations. While he has many more perks than the ladies in his life, he also has many more responsibilities. Ms. Rajakumar just does a fabulous job of showing the balances within the culture as well as the problems, and also of showing that the younger generation embraces modern technology as well as carefully integrating more modern thinking in how society is handled. There is no loud call for female equality but moves are definitely being made in that direction.
Equally fabulous was reading a book which embraced the religion of Islam as it is practiced by ordinary people. Abdulla knows all the right words and has a complete understanding of his faith but in practice he is far more lax than the older people in his family. Much of the younger generation is the same. Watching a young boy get chewed out for being at McDonald’s during Ramadan, hearing of a young girl skipping fasting because she is on her period – these small nuances are what make up the real life of people of faith and the details added depth to the characters. I hate when the Middle East, which has a culture so intertwined with the faith of its people, is stripped of that important factor and encountering it here was a complete joy.
Another bonus is how the ideas of love, marriage and romance are examined. There is the look at a typical marriage – the one Abdulla had with his first wife – and there is also a look at the practical side of how you handle arranged marriages when you know all your life that they are coming. Then we explore what happens when love gets in the way of plans. Both Abdulla and Hind care about their families and want to do the right thing but in the case of their marriage, what is being asked of them conflicts seriously both with what they want and what they need. When Abdulla falls in love with someone else the issues between him and Hind become even more pronounced and it clearly becomes even more important that they find a way to break the engagement.
I also really enjoyed how the love story is captured here. There is attraction of course but the main emphasis is on the enjoyment of each other’s company and the mutual admiration of the other’s intelligence, charm and kindness. A soul deep connection is what I look for in a love story and that is what I found here.
Book Details
Reviewer: Maggie Boyd
Review Date: August 23, 2016
Publication Date: 2013/11
Grade: B+
Sensuality Subtle
Book Type: Women's Fiction
Review Tags: Contemporary romance
LOVE COMES LATER
by Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar
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KIRKUS REVIEW
In her novel, (From Dunes to Dior, 2012, etc.) Rajakumar pulls back the veil on life in Qatar to reveal a glimpse of Muslim life rarely seen by Westerners.
When newlywed Abdulla loses his wife and unborn child in a car accident, the world seems to crumble beneath his feet. Thrust back into living in the family compound, he goes through the motions—work, eat, sleep, repeat. Blaming himself for their deaths, he decides to never marry again but knows that culturally, this is not an option. Three years later, he’s faced with an arranged marriage to his cousin Hind, whom he hasn’t seen in years. Hard-pressed to find a way out, he consents to a yearlong engagement and tries to find a way to end it. What he doesn’t count on, and is unaware of, is Hind’s own reluctance to marry. Longing for independence, she insists on being allowed to complete a master’s degree in England, a condition Abdulla readily accepts. When she finds an unlikely friend in Indian-American Sangita, she starts down a path that will ultimately place her future in jeopardy. The greatest success of Rajakumar’s novel is the emotional journey the reader takes via her rich characters. One cannot help but feel the pressure of the culturally mandated marriage set before Hind and Abdulla. He’s not a real Muslim man if he remains single, and she will never be allowed freedoms without the bondage of a potentially loveless marriage. It’s an impossible situation dictated by a culture that they still deeply respect. Unfortunately, the novel runs into trouble in its critical moment. When Hind is tempted with a taste of freedom, she is faced with a decision that could potentially ruin her life. The carefully crafted story becomes rushed with awkward and inconsistent behavior from its main characters. Hind’s story completely falls off for several chapters, leaving the novel underdeveloped and lacking the precision of excellent prose.
Readers will forgive some errors in development for a deliciously tangled plot and insight into life on the Persian Gulf.
Pub Date: July 5th, 2012
Page count: 262pp
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Program: Kirkus Indie
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28th, 2012
Sunday, February 25, 2018
Book Review: 'The Migrant Report' by Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar
South Asian American author Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar live and write in Qatar (for those unsure of Qatar, it is a sovereign country located in Southwest Asia, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its territory surrounded by the Persian Gulf). In addition to being a wife and mother she has become a very popular author whose books are exceedingly varied in topics and most are winning awards.. She has published thirteen e-books - MOMMY BUT STILL ME (for first time mothers), SO YOU WANT TO SELL A MILLION COPIES (for aspiring writers), COULORED AND OTHER STORIES (a short story collection), SAVING PEACE (concerning women's friendships), AN UNLIKELY GODDESS ( a coming of age novel), FROM DUNES TO DIOR (essays relating her experiences as a female living in the Arabian Gulf), LOVE COMES LATER (a romance set in Qatar and London), THE DOHMESTICS (the relationships beaten housemaids and employers), I'M VEGGIN' IT: A BEGINNERS GUIDE, QATARI VOICES, HARAM IN THE HAREM: DOMESTIC NARRATIVES IN INDIA AND ALGERIA, HIP HOP DANCE (THE AMERICAN DANCE FLOOR), and THE OPPOSITE OF HATE. And now she offers THE MIGRANT REPORT which is scheduled to be a series on crimes in Arabia.
For a writer whose books vary form self-help to morality issues, it is refreshing to find that Mohanalakshmi can create significant atmosphere as well as a soft prelude that rapidly advances into the allegro of her tale. For example, compare the gentle tone of the opening with the chaos that is to come: `Thursday morning began like every other, the desert sun rising in the sky, as yellow as a yolk in a pan.' (very poetically phrased) "Get out of the way! Doesn't anyone know how to drive in this country," Ali snarled, his temper rising with the temperature. Heat shimmered on the windshields of the undulating column of sedans and SUVs between him and the office. "Yes, let's all take the same road and turn the highway into the parking lot." He scanned radio channels. Only morning Arabic talk shows full of complaining callers. "Why are so many foreigners working at the national university?" A speaker said in rapid Khaleeji dialect. "And why do I have to take the TOFEL to study at a university in an Arab country?"
Flavor set, and the story is distilled in the summary: `Against the glittering high-rises of the capital, Manu, a recent arrival from Nepal, drips his days away on a construction site, cut off from the world outside the labor camp. His sister despairs of finding him among the thousands of migrant workers flooding into the Arabian Gulf to build the country's infrastructure. Manu and Sanjana must keep their younger siblings out of poverty, even if at their own expense. Police captain Ali's hopes of joining the elite government forces are dashed when his childhood deformity is discovered. His demotion brings him face to face with a rising pile of unexplained dead bodies and also an aspiring journalist who is unlike any local girl Ali knows. In danger of flunking out of university, Maryam is searching for an original story that will appease her professor and keep her family's machinations for marriage in check. Can the unlikely trio fit the pieces of the puzzle together before agency thugs get to Manu?'
Very fine writing, this. Mohanalakshmi judiciously mixes languages to the stories authenticity and advantage. If this is Book 1 of a series, we are seeing the emergence of a very significant new writer. Grady Harp, August 15
Editor's note: This review has been published with the permission of Grady Harp. Like what you read? Subscribe to the SFRB's free daily email notice so you can be up-to-date on our latest articles. Scroll up this page to the sign-up field on your right.
Doha-based author’s novel inspired by crime in Qatar
Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar talks about how two shocking real-life murders provided her with the inspiration for No Place for Women, her latest crime novel set in the Arabian Gulf.
Rob Garratt
Rob Garratt
August 21, 2016
Updated: August 21, 2016 04:00 AM
0
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Doha-based author Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar. Juliette Sawyer for The National
Doha-based author Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar. Juliette Sawyer for The National
The murders of American Jennifer Brown and Briton Lauren Patterson, both expatriate teachers, in unrelated cases in 2012 and 2013, shocked Qatar. They also made a big impression on author Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar, inspiring her to write her latest crime novel, No Place for Women.
“Those two murders are at the heart of it,” Rajakumar says. “That speaks to how rare crime is [in the Arabian Gulf].
“Both murders happened about a year apart and just shocked everyone. People just couldn’t believe that this kind of thing could happen here.”
A South Asian-American who has lived in Doha for more than a decade, in 2013 Rajakumar published what was reportedly the first English-language novel to be set in Qatar, Love Comes Later. It won the Best Indie Book Award for Romance that year.
For No Place for Women, the action shifts to an unnamed city in the Arabian Gulf, for “practical reasons”. Taking the real-life murders as the creative spark for her fictional story – Rajakumar says the book is “inspired by real events, in the Hollywood sense” – we are introduced to detective Ali, who is investigating the murder of an expatriate. When the burnt remains of a second body turn up in the desert – the same fate that befell Patterson – Ali begins to wonder whether there is a serial killer on the loose.
No Place for Women is the second novel in Rajakumar’s self-published Crimes in Arabia series, which was inspired by the novelist’s love of Scandinavian crime writers, including Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbø.
“It struck me there are a lot of similarities between Scandinavia and the GCC,” she says. “You have small native populations made rich by oil wealth, a promise of utopia, and yet on the fringes of society lots of things are going on that aren’t necessarily presented in the mainstream.”
The first book in the series, The Migrant Report, published last year, explored the dark side of the life of construction labourers, while a third volume will tackle the threat of ISIL extremists.
As with any good crime-novel series, one of the key ingredients is a charismatic cast of recurring characters. In this case they include our hero, Ali, who finds himself thrust into the midst of a hidden, alien expat world beneath the surface of his own country.
One amusing key scene finds him encountering Tinder as part of his investigation, only to discover his cousin is a user of the dating app. “In every novel you have a moment where it all comes together,” says Rajakumar. “In that one scene, you get so much about this place and its peculiarity.”
No Place for Women is Rajakumar’s ninth work of fiction, in addition to numerous non-fiction titles. Born in South India, she moved to the United States at the age of 11 and pursued an academic career that led her to Qatar in 2005. A prolific writer, the 37-year-old fits in writing around her work as a teacher and researcher, based at Doha’s Education City, and as a mother of two.
“Right now in the world, this is a really violent time for women – you look at the Delhi rape case, or in the United States, where these young, mostly white men are getting off with very light penalties for proven rape,” she says.
“I think it all came together for me – that’s what inspired the title. Often people say, ‘Oh, the Middle East, do you feel safe? It doesn’t really seem safe for women’.
“But, on the other hand, it doesn’t feel like the world in general is a safe place for women.”
• Visit www.mohadoha.com for more information and to order
rgarratt@thenational.ae
[BOOK REVIEW] THE MIGRANT REPORT BY MOHANALAKSHI RAJAKUMAR
September 30, 2015
51zDMW4XrrL._SX311_BO1,204,203,200_It was with some trepidation that I started on The Migrant Report by Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar. A murder-mystery set in a Gulf state (**shush!**), involving lower-income migrant workers.
These were my 3 main fears:
The book would remove the invisibility cloak migrants in the Gulf don, only to reveal a negative characterisation.
It would tug at the stereotypical emotional strings of the migration narrative.
It would dehumanise them.
Two of those fears were completely misplaced. And, yes, there were those emotional strings of family, ailing mother, poverty, but only to the extent a work of fiction demands.
First with the good stuff:
Every character in the book is sketched with great sensitivity and nuance. As in her earlier works, Mohana’s brings a lot of insight and layers to her male characters. Be it fresh-off-the-boat Manu, or the well-meaning but always in trouble Daniel, or Ali, the Qatari cop, and even Nasser who only makes the occasional appearance. She wills us to fall a little in love with these strange men.
Not one for great details or long-drawn out scenarios, the author still manages to vividly represent the many relationships in the book. Cindy and Sanjana, Maryam and Daniel, Daniel and Sherif, Manu and Santana, Maryam and her family, Maryam and Ali. She brings out daily frustrations and stifled aspirations even within brief exchanges between the characters.
It requires courage to write a book such as this. Not just about migrants, but the secret lives of expatriates, while still being one. That she has done well, mining the experiences of her many years living in a Gulf state herself.
The book manages to not bracket migrant workers as being completely helpless, and shows them as resourceful people. Without being patronising, it manages to show them as strong people, even if in weak situations.
What could have been different:
The book is self-published, hence does not have the advantages and resources of a publishing house. It could do with a good bit of editing and proofing. Chronology of events is mixed up in places. Also, its Gandhi, not Ghandi (Americans!).
The book covers a wide range of plots and lives and the author seems to have rushed through it in many places. Spending a little more time on some of the scenarios would have enriched the book – the mysterious happenings at the labour accommodation; Manu and Sanjana’s relationship; Maryam and Ali’s interaction; the disconnect between Cindy and Paul.
At several instances it seemed like the writer thought of a great idea, but instead of developing it, just drops it there between the pages, running away to meet the next shiny idea. Maybe that’s what a sequel would address. Maybe.
While the expatriate environment and that of the Arab household has a sense of familiarity, the brief look into Nepal and the labour accommodation seems borrowed. More research would have helped.
I am not sure I would classify it as a crime-thriller. Not yet.
Do pick up the book, it’s definitely a good read. I read it in just a day and a half. That’s not to say it’s an easy read. The loneliness of the characters, their struggles and the faint reflection of our own lives will leave you thinking about the sequel.
PS: May I also suggest you pick up Love Comes Later & Dohmestics by the same author? They both give rarely available insights into life in the Gulf.