The mystery of Polynesian culture has baffled scientists, explorers and linguists for centuries. They are a people with shared traits scattered across tiny dots of land in a sea of ten million square miles. But where did they come from, and how did they get there? More importantly, how did they know to look there?
“The Orient—including present-day Turkey, Greece, the Middle East, and North Africa—exerted its allure on the Western artist’s imagination centuries prior to the turn of the nineteenth century.” Jennifer Meagher, Dept. of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art The cover alone appeals to the unrepentant Orientalist in me. I’m fascinated by the archaeology and exploration of…
In the turn-of-the-century New York City, a Syrian tinsmith names Arbeely is repairing a copper flask, when he unwittingly releases a jinni. The spirit has been captive an untold number of decades, unable to enjoy the freedom he once enjoyed. The tinsmith, stunned, takes in the wayward jinni. He gives him a cot and the…
I have a love/hate relationship with Paris. Like many people, I expect, I had a romanticized notion of Paris, which I was quite aware was unreal. But I still wanted to see the storied place of Latrec, Ilse Bing, Cocteau, Hugo, Doisneau, and Brassaï. There must be something that drew them, inspired them all. If…
Zafon experts, please forgive me — this is my first time reading one of his books. After I was nearly finished with it, someone asked me how I liked the first two in the series. Oops. But, I was impressed enough to want to go back and read them. And as far as I am…