Dubai

"When it was first published it was banned in the UAE. It’s billed as an academic tome but it’s an easy, illuminating read; wound around the facts are anecdotes and stories that lay bare the vulnerable position Dubai has placed itself in by making itself into a “brand”. Without the oil of its big brother Abu Dhabi, it has focused its efforts on financial services, property and tourism, all arenas that require foreign investment. Seeing this vulnerability Davidson sees the bubble bursting. With the crash old news, the ban has been lifted. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter But the book isn’t simply an analysis of an economic model; it delves into the past and tracks the unlikely story of this little settlement on the edge of a desert. We see how a tiny town inhabited by fishermen and pearlers – a trading stop on the silk route – muscled its way on to the world stage. These glimpses of history show the huge culture shock of modernisation; the simple life of fishing and pearling, tending dates or tending livestock in the desert has been replaced with a western-based way of life. Just a few decades ago the tiny population knew each other as family. Now huge cities are a challenge to identity. There used to be sand everywhere, roads used to run straight into sand, and everything was covered in dust. Now you could be in Dubai or Abu Dhabi and not really know you were near the desert at all. And Dubai has Abu Dhabi to contend with; the oil-rich capital has recognised that this is its moment and is stepping in with huge global plans."