tamaranth | 2021/104: In the Empty Quarter -- G Willow Wilson

2021/104: In the Empty Quarter -- G Willow Wilson

Jean almost told him she’d never before thought of an Arab as being ‘well-bred’, but she stopped before the words left her mouth, silently pleased by her own sensitivity. [loc. 120]

Set in 1952 in the Rub' al-Khali desert, near the Persian Gulf. Jean's husband Harold is an oil company executive: Jean is bored out of her mind, sneeringly dismissive of the other company wives, and cultivating an affair with Masoud, who's the cousin of a prince. She is allowed to accompany Harold and Masoud on a desert survey: disregarding Masoud's warnings, she falls into a cave and is trapped by a rockslide. Which is the least of her worries.

Jean is an unlikeable character, though she has imagination and a streak of romanticism which soften her sharp edges a little. It's likely that by the end of this short story (barely a novella) she has become somewhat less racist, a little more mature: I'd have liked an afterword to hint at what happens next. But this is a well-structured and nicely layered tale, and I am reminded that I enjoyed Wilson's debut novel (Alif the Unseen) and would like to read her latest, The Bird King.