Gazelle in the Shadows

Happy end of summer! The kids are back in school (thank you, Jesus), work is starting to settle into a routine, and books are getting read. Now if only we could not be so stinkin’ hot here in Texas, that would be great. Luckily, you can read indoors (or outdoors, if you live in somewhere that isn’t 100 degrees or covered in smoke from fires), and today I’d like to suggest Gazelle in the Shadows by Michelle Peach.

book cover "Gazelle in the Shadows"

Elizabeth Booth is preparing to embark on an intensive Arabic program through her university. Her school grades were not good enough to enter university straight away, so she spent several years for the British government in Sana’a and had traveled through Egypt, where she developed an affinity for the culture and an interest in the Arabic language. Now a student at Durham University, her Arabic program partners with foreign universities to provide an immersive experience in the second year of study. Her school has standing arrangements with programs in Sana’a and Cairo, but, because Elizabeth has already been to both of those locations, she wants to go somewhere different. After some discussion with her professor, he agrees to let her go to Damascus.

The book follows Elizabeth as she travels to Syria and does what most young people do when they arrive in new places: she wants to explore the city, she wants to make friends, she wants to fit in. Almost immediately, she befriends several people on the flight to Damascus who offer to help her find a place to stay. Knowing the Arabic culture is friendly and open to helping strangers, she accepts their help and develops her first friendships. They help her find a home full of local women her age who offer her a place to sleep. As her school program begins, she easily makes friends at the school and she also falls in love with a local man.

However, things are not always what they seem. When Elizabeth begins to notice a few red flags with both her boyfriend and her school friends, she must question what she knows and what she believes is the right thing to do.

I don’t want to really get into what the red flags are, or what happens as the story progresses, because I don’t want to spoil anything. You’ll just have to read it.

Buzz and Woody (Toy Story) Meme meme

I will say that I really enjoyed this book. I wish – a little – that there was more detail towards the end of the book, when things really get hairy and dicey and reach their peak. The first 75% of the book are so full of detail – the surroundings, the culture, the people, the experience – and then I felt like the last 25% sprinted quickly and glossed over the particulars. It might not be the most pleasant thing to write about or the nicest things to imagine, but I wanted more.

I like Elizabeth. She was appropriately naive but still had a backbone. I thought her story, background and all, seem very believable and that makes it easy to buy into the story the book tells. Her friends and the people she meets along the way are also very believable. This is, in retrospect, not surprising because the author also worked for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, traveled through Arabic countries, and went to Durham University. I’m going to go ahead and say Gazelle in the Shadows is quasi-autobiographical. So, for me, it was interesting to read and try to deduce how much of the story was her life and what she really experienced and how much was fiction or embellished.

The book is really well written, I think. It had a nice, gradual ramp up from the beginning to the chaos of the climax and the resolution. There was a lot of description regarding the surroundings and the environment and the people, making it very easy to imagine myself there. The backstory on the characters involved was necessary and really helped clarify what makes them tick – which was very helpful in understanding how Elizabeth allowed herself to fall in love so quickly. I feel like during the summer, I read lighter fare – things that maybe weren’t as well written but were quick and easy reads, which is what I wanted when I wasn’t sure I’d have chunks of time to sit down and really get into a book. Gazelle in the Shadows was a nice reprieve.

As an aside, I traveled to Syria back in the fall of 1997. I grew up overseas (in Southeast Asia) and my school had a travel club that took trips every other year. The year I joined, our teachers thought it would be a great experience to go to Jordan and Israel for a 9-day trip. Well, back in 1997 Israel was dangerous so the school made a last-minute change to our itinerary and we went to Damascus instead. We spent time camping in the desert with a Bedouin tribe, floating in the Dead Sea, wandering markets and eating strange-to-us foods, the Great Mosque in Aleppo, walking through Petra and the giant caves . . . it was awesome. So, in all fairness, I also probably loved this book because it reminded me of a bit of my youth.

So – if you like other cultures and stories with a bit of adventure/thriller/coming-of-age (because Elizabeth really does start off with rose-colored glasses that eventually get crushed), this is definitely a book for you.

Overall: 8.5/10

* I received a copy of this book from the publicist in exchange for my honest review.

 

Discussion

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