Chapter 27A seeker went to ask a sage for guidance on the Sufi way. The sage counseled, “if you have never trodden the path of love, go away and fall in love; then come back and see us.”
—Nur ad-Dīn Abd ar-Rahmān Jāmī, fifteenth-century Sufi mystic and poet
4:45 p.m. GMT+3, May 10, 2022
Hills outside Siirt, formerly Turkey, now Anatolian Kurdish State
Did she hear correctly? Rohat? Zara leans her back against the door, trying to remember the last time she talked with her ultraorthodox kin. Okay, he tried to marry her when she was seventeen, claiming his right as her oldest male first cousin. And then he led her paternal family to shun her six years ago, for the acts of atrocity committed upon her against her will. Now what does he want?
Zara makes sure the door’s safety latches are se
