Summary | Excerpt | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Jul 2004, 224 pages
Paperback:
Jun 2005, 224 pages
Book Reviewed by:
BookBrowse Review Team
Buy This Book
From the book jacket: In 1974 Carmen,
half-Swiss and half-Persian, married into the Bin Laden
family. She was young and in love, an independent European
woman about to join a complex clan and a culture she neither
knew nor understood. In Saudi Arabia, she was forbidden to
leave her home without the head-to-toe black abaya that
completely covered her. Her face could never be seen by a man
outside the family. And according to Saudi law, her husband
could divorce her at will, without any kind of court
procedure, and take her children away from her forever.....In
1988, in Switzerland, Carmen Bin Ladin separated from her
husband and began one of her toughest battles: to gain the
custody of her three daughters. Now she speaks out in
this shocking, impossible to put down memoir.
Comment: No doubt there are more erudite and learned
books written post 9/11 (and before, for that matter, for the
few people who were interested enough to read the warning
signs). However, few have the up close and personal touch of
Carmen Bin Ladin's memoir - the Swiss-born ex-wife of Yeslam,
Osama's older brother. The life she describes for women in
Saudi Arabia is consistently oppressive, and the mentality of
the exceedingly rich Bin Ladin family is unnerving to say the
least.
'Bin Ladin's story is a courageous one. To stand up as a woman
and share her personal experiences and feelings, although
quite subjectively, about the Bin Ladin family's daily life in
Saudi Arabia is surely a bold and possibly consequential act.'
- USA Today.
This review
first ran in the July 6, 2005
issue of BookBrowse Recommends.
If you liked Inside The Kingdom, try these:
by Zoë Ferraris
Published 2009
A novel of taut psychological suspense, offering an unprecedented window into Saudi Arabia and the lives of the men and women who live there.
by Yaroslav Trofimov
Published 2008
The dramatic and immensely consequential story of the violent takeover of Islam's holiest shrine, the Grand Mosque in Mecca, by Muslim fundamentalists in 1979. With nearly 100,000 worshipers trapped inside the holy compound, Mecca’s bloody siege lasted two weeks, inflaming Muslim rage against the United States with repercussions we still feel...
The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise
by Colleen Oakley
A “wildly surprising, entertaining ride of a novel.”
—Jodi Picoult
Once We Were Home
by Jennifer Rosner
From the author of The Yellow Bird Sings, a novel based on the true stories of children stolen in the wake of World War II.
Last House Before the Mountain by Monika Helfer
A spellbinding, internationally bestselling family saga set in a fractured rural village in WWI Austria.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
