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Sheila Flaherty

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East of Mecca Kindle Edition

by Sheila Flaherty (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.6 1,014 ratings

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This award winning moving and unforgettable novel, East of Mecca, tells a timely, harrowing, and heartbreaking story of love and betrayal, the transcendent power of sisterhood, and the ultimate price of oppression. Driven by financial desperation, Sarah and Max Hayes are seduced by promises of a glamorous expatriate lifestyle in Saudi Arabia. Sarah surrenders her career when Max accepts a prestigious job with Ocmara Oil Company and they relocate their family to the shores of the Persian Gulf. Locked inside the heavily-guarded Ocmara compound, Sarah becomes invisible within the male-dominated, fundamentalist, Islamic Kingdom, which is governed by sharia law. Gradually, she is drawn into a clandestine, illicit friendship with Yasmeen, a Muslim Saudi woman. Together they find freedom beneath the veils and behind the walls of the Saudi women’s quarters—until inconceivable events force Sarah to make life-or-death decisions. Told with riveting authenticity and exquisite detail, East of Mecca explores gender apartheid through the abuse of absolute power with an elegant balance of cultural nuance and moral inquiry. Long after you have turned the last page, you will be haunted by the vivid characters and powerful scenes illuminating this tour de force. Winner of 2015 Silver Nautilus Book Award and also received an IndieReader recommended 5-star review.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"5 STARS! EAST OF MECCA is a powerful and agonizingly vivid tale of the struggle for women's lives, well-being and agency in the face of a controlling fundamentalist dictatorship." - IndieReader Review

About the Author

Sheila Flaherty is a writer and clinical psychologist who specializes in helping people navigate through life changes with grace and ease. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and a Master's in Behavioral Sciences from the University of Houston. Flaherty earned her Ph. D. in Clinical Psychology from Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago. Growing up an "Army brat" and as a young woman she lived in numerous places in the states and overseas, including Germany and Singapore. Her life experiences and extensive education make her a kind, intuitive, and life-transforming therapist. Flaherty has had a thriving private counseling practice in the Chicago area for the past 34 years, except for one year spent in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Flaherty has always been passionately drawn to righting injustice. While living in Saudi, her compassion led her to practice counseling secretly, helping to empower the American and Saudi women she met. This experience inspired her to write East of Mecca, a novel about women living within the confines of a violent, oppressive, male-dominated society. Known for her ability to immediately immerse her readers in a scene and leaving them longing for more, Flaherty has placed in several screenwriting competitions, including Big Break, BlueCat, CineStory, and the Nicholl Fellowships. In 2010, 2013, and 2016, she was awarded residencies at the Ragdale Foundation for her work in fiction. East of Mecca was awarded a Silver Nautilus Book Award in Fiction for 2015, and is IndieReader Approved with a 5-star review. East of Mecca has a near 5-star review from Amazon.com readers, and is also an Amazon.com Best Seller in Middle Eastern Literature. Flaherty's life mission continues to be to enlighten, inspire, and empower others for the greater good.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00FMY2CWI
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 3, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1329 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 339 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #618,908 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,099 in Women's Psychological Fiction
- #3,529 in Psychological Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #4,866 in Contemporary Literary Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.6 1,014 ratings

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Sheila Flaherty

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Sheila Flaherty is a writer and clinical psychologist who specializes in helping people navigate through life changes with grace and ease. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and a Master's in Behavioral Sciences from the University of Houston. Flaherty earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago.

Growing up an "Army brat" and as a young woman she lived in numerous places in the states and overseas, including Germany and Singapore. Her life experiences and extensive education make her a kind, intuitive, and life-transforming therapist. Flaherty has had a thriving private counseling practice in the Chicago area for many years, except for one year spent in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Flaherty has always been passionately drawn to righting injustice. While living in Saudi, her compassion led her to practice counseling secretly, helping to empower the American and Saudi women she met. This experience inspired her to write East of Mecca, a novel about women living within the confines of a violent, oppressive, male-dominated society.

Known for her ability to immediately immerse her readers in a scene and leave them longing for more, Flaherty has placed in numerous screenwriting competitions, including the Nicholl Fellowship, Big Break, BlueCat, and Table Read My Script: London. East of Mecca was a Finalist in the 2018 Socially Relevant Film Festival in New York, a Gold Finalist in the 2016 Beverly Hills Screenplay Competition, and a Finalist in the 2005 CineStory Screenwriting Competition. In 2017, Flaherty was selected as a Top 50 Writer in ISA Fast Track Fellowship VI.

East of Mecca was awarded a Silver Nautilus Book Award in Fiction for 2015, and is IndieReader Approved with a 5-star review, was named one of the best self-published books of 2016 by IndieReader, and one of the best self-published books by Rebels Market in 2018. East of Mecca currently has over 100 reviews averaging 5-stars on Amazon, and is also an Amazon Best Seller in Middle Eastern Literature for three consecutive years. Flaherty has been awarded residencies at the Ragdale Foundation for her work in fiction in 2010, 2013, and 2016. Her life mission continues to be to enlighten, inspire, and empower others for the greater good.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

1,014 global ratings

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Amazon Customer

Excellent Read

Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2024

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This book is a powerful read. Required reading for all interested in human rights. I have met the author and this is a genuine, realistic account of life in Saudi Arabia.

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Amazon Customer

A story that explores the dangers where absolute power is awarded to only one entity

Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2019

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While this story is a work of fiction is it based on the author's experiences while living in Saudi Arabia. This was actually my 2nd time reading this book. Yes, it was worth the read BOTH times. I read it with a neighborhood book club a number of years ago. Rarely do we all agree we like a book - yet, on East of Mecca - we did. And that sentiment repeated itself with my sister's book club this past January 2019. The book is absolutely eye opening and horrific all at the same time regarding the treatment of the female gender in Saudi Arabia. The book is a story which makes it easy to read, yet informative of the extreme oppression of women in the country. I have recommended this book to all my friends, sisters and my mother. It is a must read to unveil not only the oppression and domestic abuse of Saudi Arabian women, but those around us. Knowledge is power. Inform yourself and you might be able to help someone who is having trouble finding a voice of her own.

2 people found this helpful

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Robin Surface

Emotional story

Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2018

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Wow - this book was well written and extremely emotional. The author did a great job of communicating depression, desperation and desolation of the soul combined with beautiful descriptions of Saudi scenery and life.

The story line is gripping and the characters are vivid. The author made me feel each emotion, loss and each time the family was deprived of yet another thing we take for granted. I found myself in tears several times throughout the story. It was also interesting to see how the author showed the male controlled culture influencing the husband in the story. In my opinion, he became the surprise villain.

This book, though fiction, would certainly make me think twice about even visiting Saudi Arabia! This was a great reading experience and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a great, well-written story.

2 people found this helpful

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M. Hernandez-Alvarez

Brilliant and troubling

Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2018

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The author assures us that this is fiction but it reads as fact and is clearly based on personal experiences. The personal nature of the first-person account makes the story so immediate that you are there with Sarah as she experiences the very worst that Saudi Arabia has to offer. Having had experience of living in an Arab country, I was crying aloud to the the family not to go - all the money in the world is not worth the incredible culture shock they will have to undergo. They went into it so lightly without considering the huge impact this life would have on the females of the family. One thing that is very well written is the difference between Sarah's experiences in Saudi and those of her husband, Max. As she becomes more and more disoriented and feels her sense of identity slipping away, he seems to thrive on the feeling of supremacy and dominance over women. He is totally transformed in front of our eyes into a complete monster. This really is story telling at its very best and will leave you shocked.

7 people found this helpful

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Nathan Anderson

Amazing read!

Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2018

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I was blown away by so many things in this book, but what stuck out more even than the incredible and compelling story was Sheila's aptitude as a writer. As a writer and aspiring author myself, THIS is what I strive for.
Imagery and foreshadowing are vivid and powerful. The whole thing just fits together so well. Every detail and piece of the story matches the tone and mood. It flows seamlessly from page to page, and the pacing is perfect. The characters come to life, to the point that I can empathize with people with whom I share little in common. This story provoked a full spectrum of emotions for me. Sheila has an amazing talent for generating suspense, even around seemingly mundane events.

I won't even dive into the plot; it speaks for itself. Read the summary and, if you're even slightly intrigued, spend a few bucks and support a self-published author.

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Cecilia

Plight of Women in Saudi Arabia

Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2024

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Chilling account (fiction) based on true events that occurred for Western workers in Saudi Arabia. It describes the plight of American and Saudi women as well. I couldn’t put it down.

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LS

Seeds of an intriguing idea but writing needs improving; unrealistic characters

Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2019

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Could have used some major editing. Author’s intentions were good I suppose (to shine a light on repression and abuse against women), and she had the seeds of interesting plot points, but they were lost in poor execution. The writing feels flat and the characters unrealistic and extreme - for example, any argument between the main couple almost immediately jumps to “he screamed” / “I screamed” / “he screamed” with no natural buildup to actual screaming (people don’t just launch into that out of nowhere) and little variety in word choice. Much of the book is telling rather than showing when it comes to emotions, and there are many unnecessary pages that feel like fillers. (Why did we need to be told exactly what the protagonist grocery shops for? why did we need a play-by-play of the couple’s boring trip to Bahrain where they ate, drank, swam, repeat, repeat, and nothing happened?)

Characters just did not behave rationally all through this book. The husband’s evolution was almost impossible to believe.

Finally, I have a bit of a problem with books like this about a white Western character’s hardships and dramas in a non-Western country, when little real attention is given in the book to actual nationals of that country (at least not at a deeper, nuanced level). Even the one key “Saudi” female character actually grew up in the US and behaves like an American in many ways, which defeats the point. I feel like this book could have been dramatically improved with major editing, maybe collaboration / co-writing with a Saudi woman (for example every other chapter switching between a Saudi character’s view and the American lady’s view), and less focus on the unexciting minutia of American expats’ domestic life.

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

H.Taylor

Hard to put down

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 5, 2017

Verified Purchase

East of Mecca by Sheila Flaherty is an award winning novel that will stay with you long after you turn the last page. It tells the tale of a distressing, heartbreaking story of Love and betrayal, the strong power of sisterhood and the full extent of oppression.

From the beginning we meet Sarah and her husband Max. Both of them find themselves won over by the idea of glamorous expatriate life in Saudi Arabia. Sarah accepts the fact her husband's career takes precedence over hers as he accepts a great job with Ocmara Oil Company. They pack up their lives and move the family to the Persian Gulf shores. However all that glitters is not gold as Sarah discovers. She finds herself with each day as it passes become more invisible in this male dominated world. She becomes involved in a illicit friendship with a Muslim Saudi Women named Yasmeen, together behind the confined walls they find freedom. Unfortunately that freedom comes with a high price.

This book was such a heartbreaking tale that gave the reader such an insight, it became hard to read at times. It's common knowledge that women have no equal rights in the Middle East societies and this captured the emotions so well it was hard to put down. Every women should read this, it's an incredible read.

Mariette

Heartbreaking, sad but so engaging

Reviewed in Australia on October 19, 2022

Verified Purchase

Such a sad story but this still happens. A must read eye opener for all westerners your life could be a whole lot worse. Thank God you leave in the lands of the free. Cherish your blessings, in a stroke of the hand everything could be taken from you. To the in human men that beat there wives karma is a bitch your time will come my sweetly. I pray for all the women that live in these countries where men get to dictate there ever move. I pray that one day this changes and women are equal to men. Or women are just smarter.

W. R. Jongejan

well written

Reviewed in the Netherlands on March 19, 2016

Verified Purchase

This book is well written. It is fiction, but if the story is true where it concerns the daily life in Saudi-Arabia, it is a shocking story. It describes a life, especially for women, that seems to come from another planet. The book is fast-paced and on the other hand it is oppressively. You get easily into the characters and the description how money can easily influence people is comprehensive. I was never in Saudi-Arabia so I cannot confirm the veracity of the story. But reading newspapers and finding news items about beheadings etc. makes me fear the worst.

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