A co-authored thriller set in OSLO
Talking Location With Tania Malik – DUBAI, evolution of a city
27th February 2025
#TalkingLocationWith... Tania Malik: Dubai and the Evolution of a City
How does one write about a city that exists and does not exist at the same time? That was my conundrum as I worked on my novel Hope You Are Satisfied, set in Dubai, UAE, during the six months leading up to the first Gulf War.
In the early 1990s, I knew a different Dubai—a small trading port where I lived, worked, and came of age. That Dubai no longer exists. It has transformed into the glitzy, over-the-top city we know today: a metropolis that often seems to defy the laws of nature with man-made archipelagos, a black diamond ski slope in the desert, the world’s largest flower garden, and the world’s tallest building. It now hosts major international sporting events, from PGA tournaments to horse racing.
But then, as now, it was a city of “guest workers” and “expats”, which included everyone from blue-collar laborers to lowly office workers to CEOs. They brought their music, food, language, and culture. It was a popular destination for European tourists who arrived by the planeload for the clean, beautiful beaches, brilliant sunshine, desert safaris and belly dancing, falcon shows, prismatic snorkeling sites, and winding souks lined with sacks of spices and herbs, as well as beautifully intricate gold jewelry. Adding to Dubai’s appeal to tourists was the more cosmopolitan outlook that the other Arab countries in the region lacked. The vast desert surrounding the city was, and still is, a place of mystical and cultural significance. The British explorer and travel writer Wilfred Thesiger, who crossed the Empty Quarter not once but twice, wrote, “In the desert, I had found a freedom unattainable in civilization; a life unhampered by possessions, since everything that was not a necessity was an encumbrance.” In my own experience, the true nature of silence revealed itself atop those towering dunes at dusk with the simmering salt flats in the distance. Sometimes, a lone oryx would wander over to say hello.
The Creek
This magical brew of people and place gave me the ideal setting for my novel. In addition, the months after the invasion of Kuwait were filled with enormous tension and insecurity. With coalition forces amassing in the region and Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s president, threatening chemical and biological warfare, everyone was certain we were heading into the next world war. Central to my story is a young woman whose future is thrown into a tailspin with the invasion. Working for a down-on-its-heels tour operator, she is one of those many guest workers trying to make enough money to support her family back home in India. She is well-versed in the city’s shadowy underbelly, where all is not as it seems. The prospect of war, while frightening, unexpectedly gives her a chance to turn her life around. At stake is her freedom and her future.
Her character also guides readers around Dubai, introducing them to a place and culture they may not be familiar with or have preconceived notions about. The larger setting of the city becomes a jigsaw of countless smaller places, and she takes them along to shops, restaurants, homes, offices, and down side streets. They interact with friends, eat in cafes, and visit souks. She gives insight into the city, the religion, the economy, the politics, the seasons, and the flora and fauna.
For writers, visiting the actual setting of our novel can provide a profound sense of place. Even if the novel is set in the seventeenth century and the area has modernized, there are often hints of the past in a building’s architecture or museum artifacts. When I visited Dubai twenty or more years after I left, nothing was recognizable—no street, building, or landmark. While there are some before-and-after photographs of certain locations around the city on the internet, a lack of information on the web stymied much of my research. Driving down the road to where I used to work in a tall building surrounded by desert, I found it now dwarfed by towering edifices. It was jarring. What had persisted, as it had for centuries, was the immutable desert and its wadis, the coral reefs, and historical shrines.
The world and its people are always in flux; the surprise lies in what can happen next. In the meantime, the Dubai I wrote about is a place that exists in history and in my memories. And on the pages of my novel.
Tania Malik
Connect with the author via her website www.taniamalik.com
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