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A Diamond in the Desert
Jo Tatchell
Behind the Scenes in Abu Dhabi, the World's Richest City
Grove Press, Black Cat
October 2010
On Sale: October 5, 2010
304 pages
ISBN: 080217079X
EAN: 9780802170798
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Arabia in the 1960s - still a land of desert, nomadic
tribes, falcons and gazelles. And Abu Dhabi, perched on the
Gulf Coast, was a poor fishing community. Barely forty years
on, it is the richest city on earth, with major stakes in
Western economies. And if the extraordinarily ambitious
plans for the capital of the United Arab Emirates succeed,
its future impact will be global. Jo Tatchell's family
arrived in Abu Dhabi in 1974 when there were only a few
thousand inhabitants. She left as a young adult in the
nineties, choosing personal freedom over a life of comfort
and ease. But in recent years, as Abu Dhabi has become ever
more significant on the world stage, she has returned to get
behind the headlines and see how the city is changing for
herself. In this illuminating portrait, she shows Abu Dhabi
past and present through the eyes of its people - from
sheikhs to Indian immigrants, housewives to ex-pats - as
well as her own. Tales of the Bedus' traditional hospitality
and of expeditions into the desert mingle with accounts of
hair-raising decadence and double standards, as she reveals
a society and culture almost derailed by sudden, extreme
wealth. And yet, as she discovers, Abu Dhabi is about to
change again. Its rulers have a grand vision of a cultural
bridge between Islam and the West, which might just
transform our world.
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