The theme of Deep in the Sahara is simple: An Arab girl of the Sahara who wants to wear a malafa, the veil/dress worn by the women of her faith. She wants to wear the malafa to be like the women of the village, but it is not until she learns what it really means that her mother allows her to wear it. Kelly Cunnane tells you that the malafa represents all the things the girl thinks it is: beauty, mystery, tradition and belonging. But it also means […]
Mommy’s Khimar is Lovely
A young American-Muslim girl tells about her mother’s colorful khimars (or headscarf). She plays dress up in them (she is a princess, a mamma bird) and her mother shows her how to properly wear it as well. The girl talks about all the things she does. Just like any other child. She talks about a grandmother who does not go to the mosque, but is loved and is a member of her family. And she talks about her extended family in the mosque. She talks […]
Tattooed corpses and Muslim fundamentalists prove a heady mix in Thailand
Bangkok detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep of the Royal Thai Police returns in another dramatic, action-packed, and nearly hallucinogenic plot involving tattoo artists, mutilated corpses, golden-hearted whores, hard-bitten police captains, Muslim fundamentalists, and the CIA—all of this against the backdrop of an impoverished nation dependent on drugs and the sex trade for survival and a Buddha-worshipping cop who doesn’t hesitate to bend the rules when necessity and/or his conscience dictates. A strangely brilliant and obsessive CIA operative named Mitch Turner is found murdered in the bed […]
A French mystery that dabbles in immigration issues and murder
Intrepid Parisian detective Aimee Leduc is back with another murder to solve, and it takes place in Belleville, a heavily Arab neighborhood rife with tension, mystery, violence and pathos. Leduc has been asked by the sister of her best friend to help her. The sister is married to a government minister and Aimee had actually attended their wedding several years earlier. Now, the sister suspects her husband of straying and wants Aimee to intervene. But when Aimee, a software specialist, reluctantly agrees to meet Anais […]