Eman Quotah’s debut novel Bride of the Sea has been praised for its nuanced and complex depiction of Saudi Arabia, while navigating a complex family drama.
Inspired by her dual heritage and family ties, Bride of the Sea explores a Saudi perspective. Quotah investigates identity, loss, family, divorce, and migration. Specifically, she uses the perspective of a desperate mother’s abduction of her own child and their building of a new secret life without the father.
In addition to writing novels, Quotah is a prolific essayist. She focuses on love, women’s issues, Islam and faith, and optimism.
Eman Quotah before “Bride of the Sea”
Embracing her love for writing, Eman Quotah earned three higher education degrees in literature. Most recently, she got her masters in fiction writing from Johns Hopkins University.
With skill and education, her work has appeared in numerous publications. These include The Washington Post, Harvard Public Health review, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, and Independent School Magazine.
Moreover, Quotah does extensive work with consulting firms to help non-profits. She lends her expertise to those focused on providing support services to homeless youth, victims of domestic violence, and pregnant teens.
Eman Quotah finds the richness in duality
Like the characters in her book, Quotah spent her life split between two continents. She was born to a Saudi-Arab father and a white American mother. As such, Quotah would routinely spend her academic years in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and her summers in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. There, she found her passion for writing.
“I think growing up in two cultures is a really rich experience…I had the benefit of living near my father’s very large extended family and being raised Muslim in a Muslim culture, of learning Arabic in school and studying the history and literature of the Arab world. Then, coming to America where I could go to the movies and wear shorts and go to summer camp and ride my bike to the library,” she tells in an interview with Bloom.
“[Cleveland and Jeddah] are very different,” she notes to Cleveland.com. “But I think I got the ability to see the nuances and the good and bad of different places, having experienced living in two different places throughout my childhood. It was a different kind of childhood than many people have.”
Reality to fiction
Quotah’s Bride of the Sea follows a fictional tale of abduction and escape. However, its inspiration reflects a very real experience in the author’s life.
The author took inspiration from the story of a family friend’s real abduction event. Through this story, Quotah examines loss of identity and roots.
“I kind of imagined a whole side of my childhood being cut off. I wondered what that would be like, and then what it would be like to have a new culture and the rediscovery of a parent all thrust at you in young adulthood when you’re still struggling to figure out who you are,” she tells Bloom.
The novel follows Saeedah, new mother of Hanadi. First, the young mother watches her marriage fall apart. Next, she makes the decision to abduct her daughter and bring her to America to start a new life. Once grown up, Hanadi must confront her torn life and the deep family secrets that split her heart between two places.
Find Bride of the Sea by Eman Quotah at Politics and Prose, Indie Bound, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Bookshop.
