Pass this one. Better to read the more gripping Not Without My Daughter. The past few years have seen a not so unexpected surge of interest in Iranian, Iraqi, Afghani and you name it I have it Islam-kind of books. I confess I love reading such books. Offers a glimpse into a culture so different yet so similar to one I claim to belong to. But what is Mosaic? Ya ya, Dina Ahmadwakes up one day, finds that her husband, a Jordanian has taken their two kids and nanny to beloved Jordan. Boo hooing Dina teams with some verrrrrrrrrrry understanding friends - then finds some mysterious detective who comes to Jordan with her. They try to abduct the children back to beloved America. Ahem. Great story.

What happens? Husband has a change of heart. Decides to give one of the kids back - the daughter. And then, the son does a disappearing act, and bingo, Dad is completely changed. Returns both. End of story.

Spare me. Spare me. Spare me Soheir Khashoggi. There might be lots who will like this book. I definitely will never join them. ( )

I can't quite seem to put my finger on what bothers me about Soheir Khashoggi's books, but there's something that just seems to nag at me. Maybe it's her characters' having perfect, happy lives. Sure, something always comes along to upset things (in this case, a woman's children are taken away to live in Jordan with their father and his family as an effort to escape the corrupting influence of American society), but in the end, everything works out for the best and we get a happy ending. Maybe it just bugs me that things just seem to fall neatly into place, the way they almost never do in real life. Anyway, I didn't hate this one, by any means. I thought it was pretty good, but not especially memorable. ( )

L'histoire ne pète pas d'originalité : un père jordanien enlève ses enfants américains pour les élever dans son pays natal. Les personnages ont au moins le mérite de ne pas être ni tout bons ni tout méchants - un équilibre qui leur donne une certaine dimension. L'histoire est fluide. Le lecteur passera un bon moment sans avoir à trop réfléchir. ( )

Written by Egyptian writer Soheir Khashoggi, Mosaic takes place mostly in Jordan. Jordanian husband, Karim, of Lebanese-American wife, Dina, 'kidnaps' their youngest children, twins, in order to remove them from life in the U.S. His reason being that since 9/11 he feels that Arab-Americans in general are looked at skeptically and even suspiciously simply because they look Arab. Khashoggi keeps the story moving as she blends suspense with family relationships and Jordanian culture. Toward the end of the book, I thought an attraction between Dina and a private investigator was a little far-fetched but for the most part the story was believable. Interesting insight into Jordanian culture and family. I read this for a book group and wouldn't normally have picked it up but I'm glad I did. Now I'm on to reading Leap of Faith by Queen Noor.