The Ruins of Us by Keija Parssinen

I wanted to read this novel by Keija Parsssinen (and published by Harper Perennial) because it's a story about an American who marries a Saudi, and they live in Saudi Arabia.  (Not something I read about on a daily basis.) I also wanted to read The Ruins of Us because the author is an American who was born in Saudi Arabia and born into the world of Aramco.  (Actually, it's Saudi Aramco.)  I wanted to read about her Saudi characters, getting into the minds of the Saudi characters.  I also wanted to read about Saudi Arabia-- the place, the culture, the customs.  And I wanted to read an American's imaginings of Saudi Arabia.

So I read The Ruins of Us and read it quickly, and I highly recommend it.

Now what about issues like Othering and Orientalism and political correctness?  Oh, go on and think about those things, but Parssinen had her own issues to work out, and she did that in a healthy way by writing fiction.