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BooksDubaiPeople

by Alexandra Mansilla

"A City Where Everyone Has a Story": How a Book About Dubai Was Born

29 May 2025

Photo: Olivia Froudkine for "Dubai Is My Home"

I have always believed that every person has a story to tell. Everyone — no exceptions. And I feel incredibly lucky to meet people who share that belief and are willing to dive into the adventurous, unpredictable world of human stories.
One of those people is Marie Jeanne Acquaviva, co-author of the book "Dubai Is My Home," created together with Olivia Froudkine, a brilliant photographer. They have both lived in Dubai for over a decade — long enough to see how deeply diverse this city really is. The people who live here come from so many backgrounds. Different nationalities. Different generations. Different paths. Some remember Dubai as it was 30 years ago. Others have just arrived. And each of them brings a story worth telling.
That is how this book — a collection of 40 portraits — came to life. But it is more than a book, believe me. It’s a whole universe. A chorus of voices that together speak the true soul of Dubai.
“Dubai is a permanent work in progress,” Marie Jeanne says. “Something’s always happening, everywhere.”
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A city in layers

What fascinated Olivia and Marie Jeanne the most was the contrast of the city. In some parts of Dubai, you can still feel the roots. For example, in the Creek.
The Creek, they explain, is where many of the city’s early migrant families first settled — merchants from Sri Lanka, India, and beyond. Some of the portraits in the book come from families who have lived there for generations. They remember a very different city.
“Back then, you could walk across the Creek when the tide was low. When it was high, you’d push cars across on rafts.”
Those stories are still there — if you take the time to stop and listen.
“It’s not a city you can understand by walking through quickly. You need to sit. Talk. Pay attention.”
What drew them in — and what they tried to capture in the book — is the incredible variety: artists working alongside mechanics, old industrial warehouses repurposed by designers, young newcomers living next to elders who remember the desert before the skyscrapers. And yet, despite all their differences, they all call Dubai home.
“Even within one community, you find stories that don’t follow a straight path — people who came, left, came back. Others sent their kids here first. It’s never one line.”
“Dubai Is My Home”, they say, is about that complexity — a city that is never finished, never simple, but always alive. The book was born from a shared feeling: that there was more to Dubai than anyone seemed to be telling.
“After just a couple of years here, I was convinced — there’s so much more to say about Dubai. More than what you usually see. There’s this huge sea of people who are never seen. And I felt this urge to tell their stories. But it wasn’t a project yet. It was just something waiting.”
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Olivia Froudkine and Marie Jeanne Acquaviva, authors of the book

The turning point — COVID

COVID came, and it was a tipping point. A French influencer visited Dubai and released a series of glossy, tone-deaf videos.
“They were insanely bad ads. Just unethical, empty, clickbait stuff. It was awful.”
That moment pushed Olivia and Marie Jeanne to act.
“We called each other and said: it can’t be that this is the only image people see of the city. That’s when it clicked. We didn’t want to preach or sell anything. We just wanted to show.”
So they made a pact: no campaigns, no polished pitch, no narrative agenda. Just stories — as they are. And over coffee after coffee, they kept coming back to one truth:
“What’s most fascinating, most touching about Dubai is the people. Everyone here has a story.”
Migration runs through every voice in the book. Some arrived with a few coins and nothing else. Others came with degrees or businesses. But all of them, in one way or another, left something behind and came chasing something better.
“It’s a migration city. A place of hope. For some, a way out. For others, a second chance. But everyone here carries both: the place they left and the dream they brought.”
That, they say, is the soul of the book.
“Even if none of the stories are like yours, each one has something that hits you — a sentence, a feeling, a memory. Something that could have happened to you.”
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Photo: Olivia Froudkine for "Dubai Is My Home"

40 portraits, one city: “We were just knocking on doors”

The book didn’t start with a publisher or a media push. There was no team, no crew — just Olivia and Marie Jeanne, walking through a post-COVID Dubai, looking for people and talking to them.
“We just started knocking on doors. Just the two of us. No crew, no PR, no press — nothing.”
It was a strange, suspended time in the city. Life was quieter, slower. The usual noise of construction and commerce had dimmed, and for once, there was space to listen.
“Everything was still. It felt like the right moment to begin something small.”
The project began to grow — one name at a time. A friend suggested someone who had lived in Dubai since before the Union. That woman’s granddaughter pointed them to her former teacher. And from there, the chain kept unfolding.
They didn’t screen or cast anyone. The goal wasn’t to find the most compelling narrative — it was to listen to whoever was willing to share.
“It was like sitting at a coffee shop and talking to whoever was next to you. That was the energy we wanted.”
But as the list of interviews grew, they realised they’d have to shape the book carefully. Forty portraits became the natural limit. At around 25, they started thinking like editors — not to narrow the vision, but to reflect its range.
“Once we had 20, 25 people, we said: okay, we can’t make it much bigger. So we started thinking like a puzzle.”
If they had a young man, they looked for an older woman. If several Southeast Asians had shared their stories, they sought out someone from Africa, or Australia.
“If you have one, you need the others. It was about balance.”
They were careful not to over-polish. The goal was never to create something curated — in fact, that was the one word they consciously avoided. They wanted the book to feel raw. Honest. Imperfect in the best possible way. The book doesn’t try to define Dubai — it lets Dubai speak for itself.
“We just wanted to sit with people. Hear them. Let their voices speak.”
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Major Ali Saqr Sultan Al Suweidi. Photo: Olivia Froudkine for "Dubai Is My Home"

The first face: “I was born on these shores and my bedouin mother threw my umbilical cord into the sea”

The first person featured in the book is Major Ali Saqr Sultan Al Suweidi, and his story sets the tone for everything that follows. They found him through a vague tip: someone had mentioned an Emirati man who’d started a coastal preservation group, somewhere between Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
So Olivia and Marie Jeanne got in the car and went looking. And eventually they found him — Ali, a man in his seventies with striking presence, welcomed them in and began to tell his story.
“It could be a film. Honestly. He comes from a pearl-diving family — from a time when the Emirates were just tribes, merchants, and water.”
His mother had gone into labour as her family prepared to leave the seashore for the mountains, escaping the summer heat. She knew she couldn’t make the journey, so she asked a friend to stay with her until the baby arrived.
“That’s how he was born — on the shore, at a time when water and food were the only priorities. His whole story begins with the sea.”
He described the life of the pearl divers: long days in dangerous waters, physical exhaustion, and little reward.
During his military service, Ali joined a naval unit that dismantled underwater mines. One night, while stationed at sea, he met Jacques Cousteau, the legendary French explorer and marine conservationist. They spoke for hours.
“And something clicked. He understood — this was his calling. To protect the sea.”
Back home, he kept a piece of land by the water, planted mangroves, and founded EMEG — a grassroots initiative to preserve the coastline and raise awareness about the country’s natural heritage.
“He always says: we come from a simple life. Bedouins who depended on water. Don’t damage the sea — because the sea gives you life.”
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Nasser Bayram. Photo: Olivia Froudkine for "Dubai Is My Home"

One more story: aikido instructor

One of the portraits in the book shows a man in traditional Japanese Aikido robes, holding a long wooden training sword. His name is Nasser Bayram.
He came to Dubai from Lebanon years ago, part of a large and well-rooted Lebanese community in the city. Like many of his generation, he had grown up in the shadow of conflict.
“He came from unrest, from war. And here, through aikido, he found peace — not just in movement, but in life.”
His practice became more than just a martial art. It became a form of service — a way of passing on balance, control, and self-respect to others.
“He really lives it. He teaches not just technique, but everything behind it — the ethics, the discipline, the inner stillness.”
There is something deeply visual about his story. He looks, Marie Jeanne says, unmistakably Middle Eastern — but when he puts on his aikido uniform, something shifts.
“He transforms. He becomes someone else. It’s not a performance — it’s a kind of presence. His image stays with people. There’s something powerful about seeing someone who’s found a way to carry their past without letting it weigh them down.”
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Photo: Olivia Froudkine for "Dubai Is My Home"

Next chapter? Maybe not

People often ask authors if there will be a second volume. A follow-up. Another city. Another chapter. But for now, the answer is no — and that is entirely intentional.
For Olivia and Marie Jeanne, part of this book’s power lies in its boundaries. It captures a city in a specific moment, like a photograph you don’t retake.
“We like that it’s a book with a beginning and an end. A snapshot of the city at a certain time.”
The stories within it are both timely and timeless — they could have happened thirty years ago or just yesterday. But Dubai, by nature, doesn’t stay still. It changes constantly and fast.
“If we did it today, it would already be a different book. There has been a new wave of migration — people from Ukraine and Russia. Just like there was a different demographic 40 years ago. Dubai keeps changing.”
The book is still young — just a year old — and the authors are still sharing it, discussing it, listening to how people respond. But new ideas are forming.
“We’d love to do something with voices. Because the voices — they’re part of the story, too.”
In a city where nearly no one speaks English as a first language, the sound of speech itself becomes part of the atmosphere. Accents, mistakes, mixed-up idioms — it is all part of the texture.
“Everyone speaks broken English. And no one cares. The mix of accents, tones, rhythms — that’s part of the music of the city.”
They remember hearing someone with a vaguely Welsh lilt and trying to figure it out — only to learn he was Australian, educated in the UK, and raised partly in Jordan. That blend of places wasn’t the exception. It was the norm.
“All those little idiosyncrasies — the way people speak, joke, pause — that’s part of Dubai too. You hear it, and you feel how layered it all is.”
Where to find the book: available at Magrudy’s, Kinokuniya, Dubai Duty Free, and Comptoir 102.