Bride of the Sea

by Eman Quotah

Overview

Arab American Book Award Winner for Fiction

Shortlisted for the 2022 William Saroyan International Prize for Literature

Named a Best Debut Novel of the Year by BookPage and a Best Book of the Year by The New Arab

“A marvel. An intricately realized novel that honors every place it depicts.” —Rakesh Satyal

“I love the sea,” she said. “I don’t know if I could live without it.”

During a snowy Cleveland February, newlywed university students Muneer and Saeedah are expecting their first child, and he is harboring a secret: the word divorce is whispering in his ear. Soon, their marriage will end, and Muneer will return to Saudi Arabia, while Saeedah remains in Cleveland with their daughter, Hanadi. Consumed by a growing fear of losing her daughter, Saeedah disappears with the little girl, leaving Muneer to desperately search for his daughter for years. The repercussions of the abduction ripple outward, not only changing the lives of Hanadi and her parents, but also their interwoven family and friends—those who must choose sides and hide their own deeply guarded secrets.

And when Hanadi comes of age, she finds herself at the center of this conflict, torn between the world she grew up in and a family across the ocean. How can she exist between parents, between countries?

Eman Quotah’s Bride of the Sea is a spellbinding debut of colliding cultures, immigration, religion, and family; an intimate portrait of loss and healing; and, ultimately, a testament to the ways we find ourselves inside love, distance, and heartbreak.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781951142452
Publisher:	Tin House Books
Publication date:	01/26/2021
Pages:	312
Sales rank:	98,960
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Eman Quotah is Arab-American, and writes for a Washington, DC, think tank. Her father is from Saudi Arabia and her mother is from the United States; she grew up in both countries and is fluent in Arabic. Eman was named John McClelland Historical Writing Resident by the Espy Foundation.

Editorial Reviews

11/16/2020

Quotah’s alluring debut follows star-crossed Cleveland newlyweds Muneer and Saeedah through their brief marriage and its lengthy aftermath. In 1970, with a baby on the way and a lively extended family, a dark specter looms over the marriage of the two Saudi Arabian immigrants, as Muneer has doubts about the permanence of their union. Friends since childhood, the couple is inherently mismatched: Saeedah is outspoken and restless, clashing with Muneer’s staunch sense of calm and order. After six years of marriage, the two divorce, and Muneer returns to Saudi Arabia while Saeedah remains in Cleveland with their daughter, Hanadi, now five. Saeedah’s overprotectiveness of Hanadi and resentfulness toward Muneer spur her to disappear with their daughter, and Muneer spends years searching for his child. This estrangement and the inevitable, volatile father-daughter reunion when Hanadi is 17 cause rifts throughout Hanadi’s adult life as she attempts to reconcile with her painful past. The narrative’s delicacy belies the weight of its themes, and descriptions are etched with precision (Saeedah’s “nerves are elastic pulled tight”). Quotah’s resonant, neatly plotted outing will be a treat for readers who love fractured family dramas. Agent: Steven Chudney, the Chudney Agency. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"This lovely novel traces the life of a young woman caught between parents and cultures, from Saudi Arabia to America, and brings both worlds to life in all their complexities."

Shilpi Somaya Gowda

"A spellbinding debut of colliding cultures, immigration, religion and family; an intimate portrait of loss and healing; and, ultimately, a testament to the ways we find ourselves inside love, distance and heartbreak."

Bookreporter

"Bride of the Sea features a description of Saudi Arabia and its culture in a way that is not often seen in media form. She describes many aspects of the culture—from food, clothing, values, and everyday living—with a neutrality that portrays it as just that: people's cultures. She does not employ the common tone that seeks to paint Saudi culture as "savage" or "backwards" . . . . Quotah keeps readers spell-bound."

The New Arab Review

"Stunning.... Quotah’s writing is undeniably beautiful."

FULL STOP

"Precisely observed. . . . Quotah has as keen an eye for the quirky details of life in Cleveland or Toledo as well as those of Jidda, where society is impacted by the Americans involved in Operation Desert Storm and by the rapidly changing roles of women. She surrounds her exploding nuclear family with dozens of other fully realized characters, setting their drama in the context of larger social and political movements both in Saudi Arabia and in the United States. The author handles thorny issues with a light touch as she explores how her fallible characters are shaped by and react to two very different environments."

Columbus Dispatch

"A spellbinding debut of colliding cultures, immigration, religion, and family; an intimate portrait of loss and healing, and ultimately, a testament to the ways we find ourselves inside love, distance, and heartbreak."

Priyanka Chopra

"A fast-paced, beautiful saga of family and identity. It is also a deep, immersive dive into the world of women and the choices they make when constrained by family and expectations."

Washington City Paper

"Quotah’s deft characterization and pacing, combined with an inside look at Saudi Arabian life, make this debut a compelling and worthy read."

Starred Review Booklist

"From one generation to the next, and from the Arabian Peninsula across America and back, Quotah’s story offers a kaleidoscopic perspective on the weight of cultural traditions and obligations at home and abroad."

Washington Independent Review of Books

"Intertwines the dissolution and reconstruction of a single family with the evolving histories of the United States and Saudi Arabia. Eman Quotah deftly spans decades, miles, and cultures—and ultimately tells more stories within her 312 page debut than some authors tell across their entire careers. . . . In its most shining moments, Bride of the Sea displays the breadth and scope of grand family epics such as Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, as we see a family move in rhythm with a larger history."

Chicago Review of Books

"Impressive. . . . The pull and tug of America’s relationship with the Muslim world pulse through the 48 years spanned by this novel, from before the 1973 Arab oil embargo to post-September 11. . . . The novel’s beautiful conclusion leaves hope that families divided by culture and geography can reunite."

New York Journal of Books

"A beautifully intricate family drama about a young woman torn between her parents and two worlds."

PopSugar

"Ambitious."

Baltimore Sun

"Bride of the Sea is a gem."

Book Page

"Engrossing. . . . [offers] Americans a nuanced view of the Saudi Kingdom through a cast of compelling characters and a sweeping plot that spans continents and decades. . . . Quotah’s perspective is an important addition to American fiction."

The Washington Post

"A sensitive portrayal of becoming American—both the shedding of one's culture for the sake of fitting in and the difficult task of finding one's place, especially as an Arab American. . . . A clear-eyed debut from a writer who doesn't shy away from the messiness of family life."

The Star Tribune

"Bride of the Sea is a marvel. Eman Quotah has such compassion for her characters—especially the unforgettable Hannah—while uncovering new ideas about pacing and structure. This is an intricately realized novel that honors every place it depicts."

Rakesh Satyal

"Striking. . . . Eman Quotah weaves a complex, nuanced story in a delicate and captivating light."

The New Arab

02/12/2021

DEBUT In her strong debut, Quotah spans the post-9/11 decades and locates her well-developed characters in both Saudi Arabia and Cleveland. At the novel's onset, Muneer and Saeedah are on a path to divorce, leading to shared parenting of their daughter, Hanadi. Saeedah's fear of losing her daughter to Muneer, as well as a culture invoking multiple restrictions on women's freedom, eventually drive her to disappear with Hanadi in tow. In the aftermath, Muneer is consumed with finding them, even going so far as to hire private investigators. Saeedah successfully eludes Muneer's determined efforts for more than a decade, but when Hanadi comes of age, she embarks on a journey to reconnect with her extended family and her lost heritage. VERDICT Quotah's family saga effectively captures the struggles of immigrants straddling two cultures, while reiterating beautifully the imperfections of all families characterized by loss, betrayal, and secrets. Only some slow pacing in the narrative's middle, and less development of Saeedah's perspective, compared to that of Muneer and Hanadi, mar an otherwise welcome exploration of Saudi Arabian—American history, culture, and traditions.—Faye Chadwell, Oregon State Univ., Corvallis

Library Journal

2020-10-27
In this family saga split between two continents, a young Saudi American woman grapples with her itinerant, mysterious childhood.

It’s 1970, and Muneer’s relationship with his pregnant wife, Saeedah, is steadily deteriorating. He watches helplessly as she shovels snow in front of their Cleveland Heights, Ohio, rental house without wearing a coat or gloves and later walks into a freezing lake nearly naked. They have the baby—"The child will be OK, will be born beautiful and whole, will be named Hanadi”—but the couple gets divorced shortly after, and Muneer moves back to their hometown of Jidda, Saudi Arabia, while Saeedah and the baby stay in Ohio. Then, on Hanadi’s fifth birthday, Saeedah takes the girl and vanishes. In sections that jump across decades and shift between Muneer’s, Hanadi’s, and Saeedah’s perspectives, debut author Quotah gracefully charts the way this decision overturns the three family members’ lives. Muneer spends the next 12 years searching for his daughter with the help of a private investigator hired by his father-in-law, even as he works at a newspaper in Jidda, remarries, and has more children. Hanadi grows up longing for her father as she and Saeedah move around, from Toledo to San Francisco, while Saeedah works odd jobs under assumed names and flees whenever she notices anyone watching too closely. Eventually, when Hanadi—or Hannah, as she's now called—is 17, Muneer tracks her down. As she travels to Jidda to meet her relatives, she must navigate both her joy at discovering a family she didn’t know she had (“to have dozens of people feels like a gift, a gift of love that she never expected”) and resentment toward her mother for a lifetime of lies. Saeedah’s side of the story, in many ways the most intriguing, is also the most shadowy, and one wishes it were more fleshed out. But Quotah, born in Jidda to an American mother and Saudi father, depicts Saudi culture in engrossing detail, from fruit-scented shisha smoke to traditional wedding customs: “their relatives refuse to allow musical instruments at weddings—no lute, no dancing, no ‘Ya Layla Dana,’ no stereo, no songs by Amr Diab or Ragheb Alama. Only drumming and human voices, songs about God and the Prophet.”

A rich, finely rendered novel.

Kirkus Reviews