... abounds with stories like that of Rahila, the suicide bombing school dropout. Quietly listening, Searcey takes down the details of their everyday experience — including details the authorities around her might prefer were not made public. In doing so, she reveals herself to be, even today, one of the “disobedient women,” bearing witness to so many ordinary lives tossed and turned by other people’s whims..

In Pursuit of Disobedient Women is Searcey’s captivating, straight-ahead memoir of their three years in Dakar, Senegal. There is plenty here about family.

Searcey is a powerful writer who is aware of her privilege and honest about her mistakes. Her personal story relates the sacrifices she made as a journalist while also trying to keep the family unit together.

Throughout her reporting across the region, Searcey met women with unbelievable resilience: women divorcing husbands who would not let them work, women excelling in male-dominated industries, women escaping from terrorist camps. Well-written and illuminating, Searcey’s memoir introduces readers to life in contemporary West Africa and the work of overseas reporting..

...[a] revealing, sometimes heartbreaking memoir.

Journalist Searcey trades the subway for the sub-Sahara in this intense account of balancing work and family as West Africa bureau chief for the New York Times from 2015 to 2019.