The Sand Fish

A novel of Dubai, The Sand Fish by Maha Gargash offers readers a fascinating glimpse into another corner of the world.

Gargash opens the narrative in the remote mountains of the Musandam Peninsula, following seventeen-year-old Noora from an isolated valley of stone huts into an arranged union with an older pearl merchant.

The coastal village of Wadeema places the spirited young bride within a walled coral-stone household governed by strict domestic seclusion.

Within this compound, the novel tr...