In a tent at the foot of a mountain in Palestine, hundreds of years ago, our storyteller and her twin sister are born. Her newlywed parents name her Qamr (Moon) and her sister Shams (Sun). Their small caravan is journeying from the mothers city back to the fathers remote ancestral village atop the mountain. This village suffers from isolation and a curse, which her young family tries to undo. But when both her parents lives are cut short, Qamr and her sister are left orphans. And so, Qamr decides to pursue her mothers and fathers dreams of discovering the world its people and places, ideas and stories. With the red book in hand that brought her parents together, she sets out on a daring journey, on caravans and ships, across empires. Telling stories to survive, Qamr crosses deserts and seas: to Jerusalem and Gaza; Egypt, Tangier, Andalusia and Genoa; Abyssinia, India, the Maldives and Yemen. Kidnapped by bandits, sold as a slave to the House of a mad King, studying with a polymath, disguising as a man and falling in love for the first time with a pirate: Qamr searches irrepressibly for life, in endless stories within stories.
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