In 1974 Carmen Bin Laden, half-Swiss and half-Persian, married into the Osama Bin Laden family. She was young and in love, an independent European woman about to join a complex clan and a Saudi Arabian culture she neither knew nor understood. Through her candid memoir, she dares to pull off the veils that conceal one of the most powerful, secretive, and repressive countries in the world-and the Bin Laden family's role within it. [Warner Books]
Critic Reviews
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Outstanding
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Booklist Margaret Flanagan
A riveting testament to courage and determination, this intimate memoir of one woman's spiritual reawakening and odyssey has best-seller written all over it. [July 2004, p.1795]
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Outstanding
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Wall Street Journal Danielle Crittenden
Her memoir is perhaps the most vivid account yet to appear in the West of the oppressive lives of Saudi women.
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Favorable
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USA Today Carol Memmott
Inside the Kingdom boldly displays the plight of women who live under the restrictions of Islam...What she gives us is a stark and unrelenting portrayal of her own life in the Saudi kingdom.
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Favorable
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Publishers Weekly
The gravity of the events Carmen writes of, her insider's perspective and her engaging style make this memoir a page-turner.
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Favorable
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Salon Suzy Hansen
Plainly written but arresting.
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Mixed
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Boston Globe Barbara Fisher
Despite the childish writing, nave point of view, and sentimental justification, this is a compelling story.
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Mixed
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The New York Times Janet Maslin
Despite ghostwriterly phrasings like "my life sometimes felt as barren and empty as the sand," Ms. bin Ladin tells an interesting story. To some extent, it follows the format of a romance novel gone wrong.
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Unfavorable
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The Independent Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
But Carmen, you feel, skim-reads her invaluable experiences, and understands nothing but her own complaints - too many of which are laughable in the scheme of things.
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