Two books with stories set in Muslim nations offer compelling emotional sagas, writes SU AZIZ.

NEW releases Gardens of Water by Alan Drew and The Night of the Mi’Raj by Zoë Ferraris highlight the cultural and other aspects of life in Islamic countries.

One is set in Istanbul, the cultural and financial centre of Turkey; the other in Jeddah, the largest city in Saudi Arabia.

These two countries are not only different in their political administration but also in religious practice. One is known to be liberal, the other, conservative.

Even the storylines differ sharply. Gardens tells of a human drama that demands one to sit down and ponder. In this, Alan Drew shows kindness veiling betrayal. The kind that exploits weakness simply to satisfy a religious belief and a cause.
Mi’raj, meanwhile, is a thriller highlighting a death stemming from a cultural practice brought upon by religious restrictions. The interesting thing about these two books are the similarities, albeit their widely different genres.

First of all, there are deaths in both books, driven by paranoia resulting from certain beliefs held. Both books highlight the high price paid for craving freedom and fleeing towards it.

Gardens is written with such clear insight not only into the culture of Muslims but also the turmoil of parenthood and of being a teenager in a religious world trapped in a city and amongst a traditional society.

A father tries to manage a teenage daughter besotted with a boy not of her background nor religion. He is torn between love for his child and his loyalty to his faith and culture, from protecting her from non-Muslims and exposing her to the real world. His actions will evoke empathy from parents..

Mi’raj refers to the second part of the journey prophet Muhammad undertook, when he was taken to tour the heavens and also, I was told when I was very young, when he was asked to urge Muslims to pray 50 times a day. After some diplomatic negotiations, it was brought down to five times a day.

In Mi’raj, a young girl from a wealthy Saudi family is found dead in the desert just before her wedding, an arranged marriage.

While the authorities are keen to put her death down as accidental, an outsider thinks otherwise.

The question is, did she run away with a lover, which would be a sin, or was she kidnapped? If it was murder, what was the motive?

The outsider sets about to find out, and becomes attracted to a woman forensic scientist.

Gardens is an emotional read, Mi’raj is a thrilling one, but both offer plenty to ponder upon.

Bestseller book list

Non-Fiction:
1. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow
2. A New Earth: Awakening To Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle
3. The Law Of Attraction by Michael J. Losier
4. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
5. Why Mars And Venus Collide by John Gray
6. Obama: From Promise To Power by David Mendell
7. An Hour To Live An Hour To Love by Richard Carlson
8. The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman
9. Men Are From Mars Women Are From Venus by John Gray
10. The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
Fiction:
1. PS, I Love You by Cecelia Ahern
2. The Choice by Nicholas Sparks
3. Thanks For The Memories by Cecelia Ahern
4. Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho
5. Book Of The Dead by Patricia Cornwell
6. The Namesake by Jumpha Lahiri
7. A Prisoner Of Birth by Jeffrey Archer
8. Next by Michael Crichton
9. The Last Empress by Anchee Min
10. Absolute Fear by Lisa Jackson.

Local Authors:
1. Reaching For The Stars by Sheikh Mustapha Shukor Al-Masrie
2. 13 Mei-Dokumen-Dokumen Deklasifikasi tentang Rusuhan 1969 Malaysia by Kua Kia Soong
3. Mahathir’s Selected Letters To World Leaders by Dr Mahathir
4. In Good Faith by Datuk Zaid Ibrahim
5. Sharing The Nation by Noraini Othman & Mavis C. Puthucheary
6. Umno dan Malayan Union by Ja’afar Onn
7. Travelog Haji: Mengubah Sempadan Iman by Muhd Kamil Ibrahim
8. Secrets of Intelligent Investing by Ken Lo
9. Secrets Of The Lelong King by Eruwan Gerry Norsen
10. Wang, Anda Dan Islam by Zaharuddin Abd Rahman.

n A weekly list compiled by MPH Bookstores, Mid Valley Megamall, Kuala Lumpur for week ending on April 27.