Book description
Barely forty years ago, Abu Dhabi was a fishing village on the
Arabian Gulf. Now the capital of the United Arab Emirates, its
citizens are each worth million, it holds major stakes in Western
economies, and has money to burn.
In this timely, revealing and evocative portrait of a global player,
Jo Tatchell traces the emirate's dramatic development and the
sometimes ruinous effect of extreme wealth on its people and their
desert culture. And as its rulers fund another giant leap forward, she
probes behind the official facade to examine whether this secretive
and controlled society can realise its breathtaking plans to transform
relations between East and West.
'This is a place we need to know more about, and Tatchell here
provides a smart, well-informed and flavorsome guide...the best thing
I've read on the Gulf Coast boom town to date...it leaves you feeling
you have come to grips with the realities of a land steeped in fable.
The contradictions of its Islamic culture emerge starkly.' Jo Tatchell
is a journalist who writes on Middle Eastern culture for UK and US media
including the Guardian. Her first book, NABEEL'S SONG, was published in
2006 and was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award; A DIAMOND IN THE
DESERT followed in 2009.
