Mirage [Paperback]

Soheir Khashoggi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 1996

This novel goes behind the glittering facade of opulence, splendour and royal privilege, and into the heart of a modern-day harem. Seeking to expose the reality of life behind the veil, it tells the story of a young woman's fight for freedom.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her breathless, larger-than-life fiction debut, Khashoggi paints in glamorous and startling colors the segregated "women's world" of traditional upper-class Islamic culture, in which females are often showered with luxuries as well as abuse. Set in the fictitious, oil-rich Arab country of al-Remal, the narrative traces how heroine Amira Badir discovers the dangers she faces in her native culture?and how she escapes it in order to save her life. As a child, Amira witnessed a married friend stoned to death for bearing the child of her lover; the abuse she herself suffers occurs within an arranged marriage to the alternately tender and sadistic Prince Ali al-Rashad, who on one occasion nearly kills Amira, on another tries to frame her as being unfaithful. A French doctor devises a successful plan to secret the heroine and her young son out of the country and arranges for her new identity (including plastic surgery) and passage to relative safety in the U.S. As Amira?now called Jenna?transforms herself into a Harvard-educated psychologist who specializes in battered women, she lives in constant fear that her husband's henchmen will find and kill her. Ultimately?and predictably?she finds the courage to destroy the "mirage" of her life and to tell her story to the world. Khashoggi's depiction of the rarefied, claustrophobic lives of many privileged Arab women, as well as of the jet-set world of their families, adds depth and sparkle to a story otherwise constructed from the fantasy and melodrama of a romance novel. 75,000 first printing; Literary Guild selection; foreign sales to seven countries.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA?Set in present day Saudia Arabia, Mirage is a multifaceted tale of suspense and abuse. Amira's brother fathers an illegitimate daughter whose mother is stoned to death as punishment immediately after the baby's prison birth. Amira spirits the baby away until Malik is able to flee with his daughter to France?plot number one. As a properly raised Muslim woman, Amira expects and accepts her arranged marriage to rich and handsome Ali. All goes well until after the birth of her son, Karim. From that point on, Ali either ignores or abuses her. When she is a witness to his brutal killing of a young boy, he beats her so badly that she awakens in the hospital. With the help of a friend, she escapes with her son to America?plot number two. Amira changes her name and appearance, letting her Saudi family believe her to be dead. Her new life as Jenna Sorril is successful but she is ever watchful to guard the secret of her past. All of the character's paths eventually cross with the revenge-seeking Ali lurking in the shadows. YAs will want to take this fast-paced adventure/mystery/romance to the beach this summer?it's Danielle Steel with a veil!?Katherine Fitch, Lake Braddock Middle School, Burke, VA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; Other Printing edition (October 3, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 055350486X
• ISBN-13: 978-0553504866
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,237,153 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gripping read from beginning to end - not to be missed, July 15, 2005

By 

Rose du desert (Kingdom of Bahrain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mirage (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the first of Ms Soheir Khashoggi's books, which I have read, and it was superb. Set in the fictitious Arabian country of Al-Remal, it tells the story of a girl, born into wealth and privilege in a prominent Arabian family. She lives in a gilded cage, in a land where growing oil wealth and opulence co-exist with archaic traditions and barbaric misogynistic practices.

The book opens with an introduction to Jenna Sorrel, a renowned Harvard-educated psychologist living in Boston, Massachusetts. She is forcibly taken away by men masquerading as immigration officers onto an aircraft: presumably back to Al-Remal, where her sadistic husband Prince Ali has been searching for her whereabouts for several years.

It is then revealed that in a former life, Jenna was known as Amira Badir, a girl who was sold into marriage to a member of the ruling Al-Rashad family. Despite living a glamorous jet-set lifestyle and being surrounded by lavish wealth, Amira endures increasing brutality from her husband, and is stifled by the oppressive environment imposed upon many Arab women, both rich and poor. Eventually, she flees with her baby to the United States to begin a new life. However, the threat of being found by her influential husband, reaching out for her with "arms a billion dollars long", is never far behind.

I have deducted a star merely due to the inconsistent quality of writing: most of the time, it sparkles like a diamond, but occasionally there are colloquial lapses in the narration, which tarnish its lustre. Personally, I feel that there should be increased awareness of this book, although it may be banned in certain countries. Whilst it has been in circulation for several years, I only stumbled upon it recently on Amazon UK's website. It is an excellent first novel by Ms Khashoggi.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a dark shade of black, July 27, 2000

By 

faris A.Q. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mirage (Mass Market Paperback)

Sohair, kept me on the edge of my seat, it was a real thriller. Being a "Remali" mayself I share her view about how women live in this society. although she does paint an image in a shade of black darker than the way I view the society that I have lived in all my life. I liked how she related the unfairness twards women in the west to the conditions in the east. How violence againest women could be viewed as a worldwide phenomina. this book is deffinetly worth reading for anyone who is remotly interested in the middle east, it paints an image of the upper strata of society inaccessable to most, I can only imagine that it is an accurate one.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wealth, women and oppression, July 24, 2004

By 

Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mirage (Mass Market Paperback)

Khashoggi dedicates her debut novel to the memories of two women who 'inspired me to write about the special bonds that exist between women in other places and other times.' Yet her story of a woman's flight from an abusive husband and a culture which sanctions brutality in the name of Islam, contains almost no evidence of female support for female victims.

The story opens with a prologue introducing psychologist and successful author of a book on battered women, Jenna Sorrel, a woman living a lie and in mortal fear of exposure. The prologue concludes with the realization of her terror as she is confronted with her real name - Amira Badir -abducted from her apartment, drugged and loaded onto a private jet.

The first chapter jumps back in time to the late 1960s. Amira, a child of privilege and wealth in the desert kingdom of Al-Remal, conspires with a peasant midwife to spirit the child of Amira's best friend, an adulteress, and Amira's brother (who is not exposed) out of the condemned woman's prison cell. This act is perhaps the only instance of women risking themselves for another woman. It does not, of course, save the mother, who is stoned to death the following day. 'To Amira's horror, the women were the fiercest executioners, screaming curses as they threw, then scurrying to grab another stone.'

With subterfuge and money, Amira's brother, Malik, is able to set himself and his child up abroad but Amira understands that, though she may be clothed in the finest fabrics, she will never have the option of choice. Not permitted to go to school, she is educated by a governess, a privilege since most girls receive no education at all.

And when she is caught dancing alone to her father's radio, he orders her into the veil, the abeyya, that all women must wear, even though she is still a child. Her mother pleads for her but when her husband insists she silences her daughter's tears, saying, 'Do you dare dispute your father?' Later her father takes a second, younger, wife. The other women in the house console Amira's mother, then scold her for her continuing depression, then condemn her to isolation.

The lives of the women revolve entirely around their men - even in their homes they are restricted to the 'women's country.' Not that life is without pleasure. Lavish sex-segregated entertainments are occasions for gossip and food and shedding the veil to show off foreign fashions to one another.

Amira's wedding to Ali, a royal prince, occasions lavish entertaining and from the beginning handsome Ali showers her with sumptuous presents of jewels and clothes. But much more wonderful to Amira are their foreign travels and Ali'sencouragement of her intellectual life. Abroad she does not wear the veil and is invited to social occasions which include men. And once she has a son she has more than almost any other woman in Al-Remal. Except for her husband's gambling and drinking, life is good.

But after the birth of her son, her husband seems to avoid her. His occasional sexual interest can only be satisfied by pain. There is, of course, no one she can discuss his increasing brutality with. And when he almost kills her the whole palace conspires to call it an accident - caused by her own willful disobedience. Escape seems impossible, death inevitable.

Kashoggi is not a scintillating writer but the drama and glamor of her story carries the reader along. Besides the plight of her heroine, the author threads several subplots and themes through the narrative - her brother's lifelong feud with Ali, and the secrets of his life with his daughter, Amira's involvement with battered women in America and her difficulties as a single mother, the loneliness of isolation from family.

And the setting is wonderfully exotic with a fully realized portrayal of the lives of the fabulously rich, spoiled and decadent oil royalty juxtaposed to the stifling luxury of their women behind their veils.