'This story came to me and entered my soul. It did not need a key or an invite, for it already belonged. It walked in, shook my foundation and set my heart on fire. We danced around the flames and with every twirl, I grabbed a few words until I was burnt to ashes.
'Tishtar runs a small legal practice in Melbourne where he has a new client, Habiba, who seeks to bring her orphan nieces to Australia from war-torn Somalia. He is also a migrant, having left the civil unrest in Iran to find a new life in a new country.
'As Tishtar becomes consumed with Habiba’s tales of war-torn Somalia, his own childhood memories return and he reflects on the time he spent at his grandmother’s house to escape the atrocitities that led up to the Islamic Revolution. While at his grandmother’s house he comes to know Gretel, another lost soul who has experienced a community torn apart by division. Tishtar embarks on a journey in search of peace – for Habiba, for Gretel, for himself.
'Spanning continents and centuries, Forty Nights is a tale of the ongoing effects of dispossession and dislocation – a struggle humankind has faced long into its past. Ultimately it is the story of finding home, wherever that might be.'
Epigraph:
My heart aches for you I sad, your pain shall pass she replied
Be the moon in my darkest night I pleaded, if it comes to pass, she said
Learn the art of loyalty and compassion from lovers I said
That shall not be possible, she said dismissively
I shall not let your vision enter my mind, I said
I am a night farer and will find a way, she replied
The scent of your hair has led me astray in the world, I cried
That too shall be your guiding light, if you open your mind, she replied.
– Hafez, Divan-E Hafez
'A multilayered, multi-voice tale of dispossession and dislocation.'
'A multilayered, multi-voice tale of dispossession and dislocation.'
