The Gates of Paradise - Taleb Alrefai

Yacoub, a Kuwaiti man in his sixties, devotes all his time to managing his many successful businesses. His wife, frustrated by the deteriorating situation of their marriage, fills the void in her existence with unbridled consumption. But the luxury in which their family bathes cannot hide the echoes of a terrible absence, that of Ahmad, the youngest son, who has turned his back on his family to join a jihadist organization in Syria. When Yacoub discovers an attraction - as irremediable as it is unexpected - for one of his employees, a young woman of Iranian origin, he almost loses his footing. Caught between worry for the fate of his son and the exaltation that this budding relationship gives him, he suddenly learns that Ahmad is being held hostage by a rival terrorist group who is demanding a colossal ransom. This captivating and suspenseful novel - a true immersion in the daily life of an ultra-rich Kuwaiti family - questions desire, painful family dynamics, and the preoccupations with jihadism. Through the doubts of this patriarchal figure brought to review his life and his choices through the prism of unforeseen upheavals, it is the picture of a very current society that the author paints, in which generations and visions of the world are opposed.
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