Does anyone know the author or title of a book about a Muslim girl living in "Chicago" ?

Question

I thought the title was "Chicago" but I've been looking for it online and I can't find it...

Answer 1

Girls of Riyadh
Author: Alsanea, Rajaa
The tale of four young women university students from Riyadh follows their struggles to navigate the precarious paths between desire, fulfillment, and Islamic tradition while witnessing how the Arab world is being changed by new economic and political realities.

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New York: Penguin, 2007, 384 p.

Answer 2

This one, perhaps:

"When Rajaa Alsanea's "The Girls of Riyadh" hit bookstores in the Middle East in 2005, it caused a furor. Referred to by some as a "Sex and the City" for Saudi Arabia, the book delved into the social, romantic -- and sometimes sex -- lives of its four female characters. Published first in Lebanon -- and published in the United States this month -- the book almost immediately made its way to Saudi Arabia, where it was denounced by religious conservatives as immoral and hailed by reformists as a much-needed condemnation of Saudi Arabia's restrictive society.

Alsanea, 24 years old at the time, was propelled to stardom, making appearances on TV, receiving supportive phone calls from the royal family and an endorsement from no less a figure than the king's labor minister and close adviser, Ghazi al-Gosaibi. "The Girls of Riyadh" explores the lives of four young women -- Lamees, Sadeem, Gamrah and Michelle. Their stories are told by a narrator in a series of postings on an Internet chat room.

The women, like their creator, are upper-class Sunni Muslims whose lives revolve around various romantic entanglements, shopping, school and struggling against their society's strict moral code. Alsanea wrote the book while in college, where she studied dentistry. Now living in Chicago, she is doing her residency in endodontics (root canal) and studying for her master's degree in oral sciences. She spoke to NEWSWEEK's Christina Gillham."

By the way, I lived in Riyadh for 15 years.