A broke English teacher travels to Saudi Arabia intending to teach in Riyadh; she's heard there is a critical mass of English-speaking expats there and that the country's strict rules are relaxed for foreigners in the gated compounds, malls and embassies of the Diplomatic Quarter. Instead, she and her husband are sent to Najran, a little town near the border with Yemen, where they live as the locals do. From wearing the veil to pacifying enthusiastic religious police, Dolan describes adapting to a culture very different to the one she knows--an experience that is funny, frustrating and sometimes frightening. What she finds most fascinating, though, are the stories of her colleagues and students--the girls of Najran.
