The Saudia inside the desert kingdom

Sandra Mackey lived in Saudi Arabia for four years, ostensibly--as far as the authorities knew-as the wife of an American doctor. But she saw things and traveled to places rarely seen by an outsider (let alone a Western woman), and writing under the aliases Michael Collins and Justin Coe she successfully smuggled out a series of crucial articles on Saudi culture and politics.

The Saudis offers a panorama of Saudi life, chronicling Mackey's extraordinary travels and experiences, and depicting Saudi Arabia's strange metamorphosis from a backward desert kingdom into a world power. In this skillful and thorough examination, Mackey reveals the schizophrenic nature of a country in transformation: grappling with modernity, coming to terms with its own wealth, and battling to maintain a position of influence in a new world. With a new introduction and afterword, The Saudis provides essential background to the Saudi crisis as the country finds itself the mother state of international terrorism.