The Dove's Necklace
By: Raja Alem
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Mu’az, the photographer’s apprentice, was leaping between two roofs when
he froze in mid-air, transfixed by what he saw below. Deep in the cleft
between the two houses was the body. In Mecca’s ‘Lane of Many Heads’
lies the unclothed body of a murdered woman. Nobody claims the victim:
her nudity is a source of shame in the Holy City’s strictly conservative
culture. When the cholesterol-riddled and sleep-deprived detective
Nasser al-Qahtani takes charge of the investigation, he is soon
confronted by some of Mecca’s darkest secrets – by its corruption,
poverty, misogyny and rampant greed.
Never once shying away
from taboos, Raja Alem effortlessly intertwines myth, fantasy and
everyday reality to evoke the rich mosaic of Meccan life to tell the
story of a civilisation torn between dogmatic conservatism and the
desire to modernise. Narrated by several different voices – including
two headstrong women and the ‘Lane of Many Heads’ itself – The Dove's
Necklace is a beautiful, powerful novel which challenges false
preconceptions of the Arab world, and conjures up a compelling portrait
of a city and its people in the throes of change.
Mu’az, the photographer’s apprentice, was leaping between two roofs when
he froze in mid-air, transfixed by what he saw below. Deep in the cleft
between the two houses was the body. In Mecca’s ‘Lane of Many Heads’
lies the unclothed body of a murdered woman. Nobody claims the victim:
her nudity is a source of shame in the Holy City’s strictly conservative
culture. When the cholesterol-riddled and sleep-deprived detective
Nasser al-Qahtani takes charge of the investigation, he is soon
confronted by some of Mecca’s darkest secrets – by its corruption,
poverty, misogyny and rampant greed.
Never once shying away
from taboos, Raja Alem effortlessly intertwines myth, fantasy and
everyday reality to evoke the rich mosaic of Meccan life to tell the
story of a civilisation torn between dogmatic conservatism and the
desire to modernise. Narrated by several different voices – including
two headstrong women and the ‘Lane of Many Heads’ itself – The Dove's
Necklace is a beautiful, powerful novel which challenges false
preconceptions of the Arab world, and conjures up a compelling portrait
of a city and its people in the throes of change.