The novel has four plot lines, some more convincing than others. His confusion and self-hatred leads to new, bigger problems for himself and for his family.

Faisal is a young man who copes with his bicultural background by rejecting one side of his identity (American) and embracing the other (Saudi). Meanwhile, a Saudi divorce ultimately means a mother’s loss of her children.Īnd then there’s the teenage son Faisal, who has his own set of problems, less captivating than Rosalie’s, but still compelling. Rosalie has so entangled herself into Saudi life that returning to the US presents its own challenges: she has no professional skills and she has even forgotten how to drive. She has transformed herself to fit into life in Saudi Arabia-“The Kingdom,” as it’s called. The solution to Rosalie’s problem is not simple. At one point Rosalie says, “I’m disintegrating in that house.”

The home may look impressive, but inside is a family collapsing.

If he wanted a Saudi wife, he would have married one.Īt the center of the story is the Al-Baylani villa, grand and garish, located in a neighborhood called The Diamond Mile, where Rosalie and Abdullah host vast family meals on Friday. Abdullah explains to a friend why he’s grown apart from his wife Rosalie: she has become “too Saudi” for him. Later, we meet Rosalie’s husband Abdullah, a man who keeps secrets, the biggest of all: his second wife of two years lives in a villa down the street. In these first pages, Rosalie discovers that her Saudi husband of 28 years has taken a second wife.

The Ruins of Us is a timely story about intolerance, family, and the injustices we endure for love that heralds the arrival of an extraordinary new voice in contemporary fiction.In the opening scene of Keija Parssinen’s novel, The Ruins of Us, we meet Rosalie, a red-headed Texan who has been living in Saudi Arabia for more than two decades. When Faisal makes a choice that could destroy everything his embattled family holds dear, they all must confront difficult truths as they fight to preserve what remains of their world. Meanwhile, Abdullah and Rosalie's consuming personal entanglements blind them to the crisis approaching their sixteen-year-old son, Faisal, whose deepening resentment toward their lifestyle has led to his involvement with a controversial sheikh. That discovery plunges their family into chaos as Rosalie grapples with leaving the country, her life, and her family behind. More than two decades after moving to Saudi Arabia and marrying powerful Abdullah Baylani, American-born Rosalie learns that her husband has taken a second wife. The Ruins of Us is a compelling, timely debut novel that explores the loneliness of expatriate life and the dangers of intolerance, as well as the things we'll do for love.

The Ruins of Us by Keija Parssinen