Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: The Woman who Fell from the Sky

Another book about women's issues in honour of International Women's Day!

The Woman who fell from the sky: an American journalist in Yemen by Jennifer Steil 2010

Jennifer Steil, a senior editor of a New York paper, The Week, took one year off in 2006 to work as the editor of The Yemen Observer, an English language paper in Sana’a, Yemen. Jennifer went to teach a three-week course in journalism for the reporters of The Yemen Observer and was then offered the position of editor for one year. Jennifer became very close to the female Yemini reporters and the reader learns about the difficulties that Yemini women face in order to have a career in that country.

The author describes her struggles to train and retain staff and the limitations that she must face with the owner of the paper who uses the paper as a propaganda tool for the current government in Yemen. Steil describes the social and cultural life of Yemen in a very insightful way. Near the end of her contract, Jennifer meets the new British ambassador to Yemen and they fall in love. The British ambassador was in an unhappy marriage, and over the next three months he divorces his wife and becomes romantically involved with Steil. A fascinating glimpse into the life Yemini people seen through the lens of an assertive and intelligent female journalist.