SOME
GIRLS Some real-life truths really are stranger than fiction. Jillian Lauren’s new memoir, SOME GIRLS: My Life in a Harem, is a jaw-dropping and engrossing coming-of-age tale about identity, adoption, tattoos, and the two years she spent in the harem of Prince Jefri of Brunei. You should have recently received a galley. SOME GIRLS reveals how a suburban girl ended up as an international concubine and emerged from the experience a stronger and wiser woman. At eighteen, Jillian Lauren was an NYU theater school dropout chasing down a tip about an upcoming audition: a rich businessman in Singapore would pay pretty American girls $20,000 if they stayed for two weeks to spice up his parties. Independent, rebellious, and estranged from her adoptive parents, Jillian was soon on a plane to Borneo, where she would spend the next eighteen months in the harem of Prince Jefri Bolkiah, youngest brother of the Sultan of Brunei. She became one of the first Western women to infiltrate this modern-day take on an ancient institution and found herself enmeshed in an unexpected love affair with the restless prince. Jillian Lauren has an M.F.A. in creative writing and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Weezer bassist Scott Shriner and their son Tariku. |
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