First off, this woman and her husband have the most appalling families. Vicious, treacherous, hypocritical, awful people. Of all the dreadful things in this book, I'm most shocked by the sheer nastiness of their relations. That might be an odd thing, considering that Badawi was sentenced and flogged by a Saudi court for promoting freedom of expression and women's rights, but it's hard to expect much from the Saudi Arabian government in the way of good behaviour, while clearly I still have unrealistic ideals of families sticking together, so the disappointment of the latter failure was much more disillusioning.

In a nutshell: this book records Haidar's experiences as her husband's work causes him to be investigated by his country's religious and secular authorities. The slow sense of rising doom is clearly apparent, and not long after Haidar and their three young children escape the country for Lebanon, and ultimately Canada, Badawi is arrested, charged, convicted, imprisoned, and publicly beaten. A quick trip to Wiki tells me that he has since been released, upon the completion of a ten year prison sentence, but that he's currently prevented from leaving Saudi Arabia for another decade, and so the separation of this small family continues... because honestly, you can't take children back to a country like that, you just can't. Although I suppose they're teenagers and young adults now, but even so. It goes to show, I think, the sheer importance of safeguarding freedom of speech and political protection for writers, and how crucial it is to maintain these ideals. Both Badawi and Haidar are clearly very brave and principled people, and I hope they get to see each other again soon.