Drifts

Author(s): Natasha Burge

Location(s): Bahrain, Saudi Arabia

Genre(s): Biography

Era(s): 1990s - 2020

Location

Content

Natasha Burge was born and grew up in Saudi Arabia, where her family lived for more than half a century. Through various departures and returns – a year at boarding school in New England, university in London, a small town in Texas where there are more cows than people, back to work in Bahrain – the years of difficulty, isolation and severe anxiety take their toll. Finally, at 37 years old she received the life-changing news that she is autistic.

In this striking exploration of identity and place, Burge probes these intertwined strands of her being: what it means to grow up at the interstices of different cultures, and what it is to experience unrecognised neurodivergence and a late diagnosis of autism.

From the cosmopolitan heritage of Muharraq’s Pearling Path to the jebels of Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, Burge charts a new course through the stories of the Arabian Gulf and the myths surrounding autism. The result is a work of dazzling insight, sensitivity and awareness.

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