The enthralling story of the turmoil and heartbreak that rock a family after Rosalie discovers that her Saudi husband of twenty years has taken a second wife.

More than two decades after moving to Saudi Arabia and marrying Abdullah Baylani, Rosalie learns that her husband has taken a second bride. Driven by anger and heartache, Rosalie plots her departure, soliciting fellow American and Abdullah's best friend, lonely divorcé Dan Coleman, to help her.

Meanwhile, Abdullah and Rosalie's consuming personal entanglements blind them to the crisis approaching their sixteen-year-old son Faisal, whose deepening resentment towards their lifestyle has led to his involvement with a controversial Sheikh. When Faisal makes an ill-fated choice that could destroy everything his embattled family holds dear, all must confront difficult truths as they fight to preserve what remains of their love.

Set in the oil-rich Eastern Province amidst an unprecedented wave of terrorist violence, and exploring the loneliness of expatriatism and the immeasurable dangers of intolerance, The Ruins of Us is a timely story about the universality of family and the injustices we endure for love.

Keija Parssinen (pronounced Kay-a) was born in Saudi Arabia and lived there for twelve years as a third generation expatriate. She earned a degree in English literature from Princeton University and received her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she held a Truman Capote fellowship and a Teaching and Writing fellowship. For The Ruins of Us, her first novel, she received a Michener-Copernicus award. She lives with her husband in Columbia, Missouri.