Powerful storytelling that is refreshing and entertaining., Having been brought up in Saudi Arabia, knows the background and writes boldly and unsentimentally of a family's predicament at the edge of cultural fault lines., A big, brave novel, Keija Parssinen's THE RUINS OF US takes us behind the compound walls of Saudi Arabia and into the secret passions that threaten to tear one family apart. Parssinen's characters are richly conceived and her evocative petrol universe of wealth, privilege, and intrigue is unforgettable. Parssinen handles it with grace, intelligence, and gorgeous prose-a transporting and beautiful book., THE RUINS OF US is an arresting story of family and country. A fine debut., This stunning novel explores some emotionally explosive territory-what happens when a Muslim man takes a second wife after many years of marriage to his first one. Throughout, her prose is artful without being showy, forced, or melodramatic, and her knowledge of Saudi culture informs the story. Parssinen deftly illuminates Saudi Arabian life through a family locked in a battle over morality and cultural chasms., Parssinen convincingly inhabits the shifting moods of her characters. That balances nail-biting tension with lyrical intent., Parssinen's gripping, well-crafted debut tracks the awakening of a Saudi Arabian family to the dangers that lurk within. I was dazzled by this book.' (Amanda Eyre Ward, author of Close Your Eyes ), An intelligent, complex story of interfaith marriage.

Parssinen teaches us that while cultural differences run deep, when it comes to matters of the heart, we are all the same. directs the human and historical traffic with a maestro's sense of pace, and a true storyteller's sense of consequence., ' The Ruins of Us is a stunning debut novel-a love story that spans continents. THE RUINS OF US tells a gripping story about Saudi Arabian princes and bureaucrats, wives and extra-wives, sons and daughters, fanatics and exiles.

The ruins of us by keija parssinen