The Empty Quarter
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Recommended by the Gulf/2000 Project at Columbia University
“David Marion Wilkinson gives us a raw, vivid, disturbing look at the adventures of an American drilling crew in the Arabian sands, the challenges they face in an exotic environment, and the sacrifices they make.”
“The Empty Quarter is a gripping novel of the dangerous business of tapping the Arabian desert’s ocean of oil.”
“The rigors of life on an oil rig form the backdrop for Wilkinson’s atmospheric and absorbing second novel. The climax packs a wallop and the emotional aftermath rings surprisingly true. Anyone eager to learn about [the oil industry subculture] is sure to find this a satisfying, illuminating read.”
There are many ways for a young man to go to hell when trying to find himself.
Logan Wilson knows.
Deadended in Texas and about to lose his fiancée, Logan impulsively commits to working on a risky exploratory oil rig in Saudi Arabia’s Rub al Khali desert, the bleak Empty Quarter.
As his crew searches for a legendary high-pressure gas reservoir, Logan is plunged into dangerous depths in his relations with his unreliable and possibly unstable boss Jamie, the other roughnecks, and the oil company.
Realizing that the consequences could be explosive, Logan desperately struggles with the situation and with himself. He now harbors a single barebones plan—to survive the hell of the Empty Quarter.
In his second novel, David Marion Wilkinson draws on his own experience as a young roughneck in the Middle East to capture the danger and culture of American crews working in a brutal environment.