The Saddlebag

Fülszöveg

In the desert, a Thief throws himself from a cliff-top, a stolen saddlebag clutched in his arms. As he plunges to his death, the body of the falling man describes an arc, black against the brilliant blue of the desert sky.
The Saddlebag is the tantalizing tale of what befalls nine different individuals as they travel the desert route between Mecca and Medina in the middle of the nineteenth century. Each encounters, and each is changed by, a mysterious saddlebag. It seems a perfectly ordinary saddlebag when the Thief steals it from a Pilgrim. But what are its contents, so precious and so powerful that they can wreak death or joy, ruin or salvation?
During the twenty-four hours after the saddlebag's theft, the lives of the people who come into contact with it intertwine to create a circular and eternal story.
With each thread of the narrative another knot unravels, another life resolves, along the Chinese Silk Route and in India and Iran, Constantinople and London. With vibrant... Tovább

Fülszöveg

In the desert, a Thief throws himself from a cliff-top, a stolen saddlebag clutched in his arms. As he plunges to his death, the body of the falling man describes an arc, black against the brilliant blue of the desert sky.
The Saddlebag is the tantalizing tale of what befalls nine different individuals as they travel the desert route between Mecca and Medina in the middle of the nineteenth century. Each encounters, and each is changed by, a mysterious saddlebag. It seems a perfectly ordinary saddlebag when the Thief steals it from a Pilgrim. But what are its contents, so precious and so powerful that they can wreak death or joy, ruin or salvation?
During the twenty-four hours after the saddlebag's theft, the lives of the people who come into contact with it intertwine to create a circular and eternal story.
With each thread of the narrative another knot unravels, another life resolves, along the Chinese Silk Route and in India and Iran, Constantinople and London. With vibrant language, Bahiyyih Nakhjavani weaves an unforgettable tapestry, in a first novel of rare beauty, originality and power.
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BAHIYYIH NAKHJAVANI is a Persian writer educated in the UK and the United States. She now hves in Belgium where she teaches European and American literature. She has also written for documentary film, and lectures internationally on the arts and the Baha'i faith.

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Front cover:
Haft Paikar: Ascent of the Prophet to Heaven (detail). © The British Museum
Spine:
The Arab berates his guests for attempting to pay him for his hospitality. [Haft awrang, folio 196 B, detail). Courtesy of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
Author Photograph ©Martine Caillard
Jacket design: William Webb
THE THIEF, who wants only liberty, and who steals the saddlebag
THE CHIEFTAIN, who abdicates power when he misses his chance to retrieve it
THE BRIDE, who believes it to contain a message from an angel
THE MONEYCHANGER, of many guises, who loses his tongue because of it
THE SLAVE, who fears it, but who finds inspiration when she opens it
THE PILGRIM, who, because of it, finally solves the Riddle of the Sands
THE PRIEST, with a fear of women, who detects their power inside it
THE DERVISH, who will make his name and his fortune because of it, and
THE CORPSE, who offers hints of the myriad mysteries it contains
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