A First-Hand Look at Saudi Arabian Life as Few Outsiders Have Seen It
"It's like watching a movie - just better," Dr. Elisabeth Kendall, Oxford University, Arabic and Islamic Studies.


2020 Finalist Sarton Women's Literary Award for Nonfiction
#1 Bestseller on Saudi Arabia, Social Group Studies, Islam, Civil Rights, Islamic Banking & Finance


Witness the mysterious world of Saudi Arabia. Understand Saudi culture, politics, history, human rights, and women´s rights as seen through the intimate and insightful experiences of an award-winning journalist.


Few Westerners have been allowed a closer look at the inner workings of Saudi Arabia. Susanne Koelbl, prize-winning journalist for the German news magazine Der Spiegel, strips away the veil covering many secrets of this mysterious kingdom. For years she traveled the Middle East, and recently lived in Riyadh during the most dramatic changes since the country’s founding.

Peek inside the black box that is Saudi Arabia. Koelbl has cultivated relationships on every level of Saudi society and is equally at ease with ultra-conservative Salafi preachers, oppositionists, and women from all walks of life.



Listen to intimate conversations with women about their newly offered freedoms
Have breakfast with Royal Highnesses, meet Osama bin Laden’s bomb-making trainer, enter palaces of secret service chiefs
View an in-depth portrait of the all-powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS)



If you have an interest in books such as Robert Lacey’s Inside the Kingdom, Bradley Hope’s Blood and Oil, or Kim Ghattas’s Black Wave; expect unique insights into the new Saudi Arabia, travel through the rapidly changing kingdom, and be a witness to very personal encounters with the citizens of Saudi Arabia in Susanne Koelbl’s Behind the Kingdom’s Veil.

Foreword by: Karen Elliott House