Alone. In the middle of the desert. A wave of panic sent her heart pounding wildly. The tent swam. She staggered. Was she ill? Too much sun perhaps. Not enough water?…
-Hot Arabian Nights: The Widow and the Sheikh, Marguerite Kaye
Romance novels have a thing for orientalism stripped bare. Other titles in the same “And the Sheikh” series include the Harlot, the Blackmailed Mistress, the Virgin Bride, and the Desert Princess. Pity I didn’t have any along to read out loud. Instead we listened to a voice-like-a-nightingale sing Zurnī Marra, Visit Me Sometime, on cassette. And unlike a Harlequin novel written to appeal solely to housewives, the lyrics of songs by Hanan Bulu-Bulu aim straight at camel drovers seated around a campfire, keeping warm on a cold night.