The Lover

"It’s easier to solve a crime than solve yourself"

Baghdad, 295 Hijri (907 CE)

Zaytuna just wants to be left alone to her ascetic practices and nurse her dark view of the world. But when an impoverished servant girl she barely knows comes and begs her to bring some justice to the death of a local boy, she is forced to face the suffering of the most vulnerable in Baghdad and the emotional and mystical legacy of her mother, a famed ecstatic whose love for God eclipsed everything. The Lover introduces us to the emotional, spiritual, and social world of medieval Baghdad through the lives of the great Sufi mystics, washerwomen, Hadith scholars, tavern owners, enslaved servants, corpsewashers, police, and children indentured to serve in the homes of the wealthy.

“Completely engrossing and richly atmospheric. Tenth century Baghdad comes alive through the eyes of a dazzling cast of characters.”
— Ausma Zehanat Khan, acclaimed author of The Getty-Khattak Mysteries