My novel, SINGING IN BABYLON, doesn’t actually take place in Babylon. Much of it takes place in Saudi Arabia. Babylon, however, is associated with exile by readers of the Old Testament, and Kate, a Christian, discovers a feeling of exile while teaching in Saudi Arabia.

In one scene, Kate and Philip are confined to Philip’s car during a dust storm. They have recently worshiped in an underground Christian church. Kate says, “It’s funny. I had to come to a Muslim country to find a Christian fellowship that feels like a resurrection community.”

Philip responds, “Here it’s like we’re exiles coming together.”

Later, on return to America, Kate’s sense of exile continues. Why? Certainly, in the U.S. Kate has freedom to openly worship as she chooses, but her new understanding reveals another kind of exile, that of exile from the values of the culture that surrounds her.