In Chapter One we meet the young Fatima in the remote village of Kassim, Iraq. A highly sentient child, she is rooted in and nurtured by her desert environs, which mould the character of this "child of the desert" and help explain her actions in the novel. Indeed, as the chapter foretells, the desert becomes a metaphor for her fate.
How did you react to the description of the desert? Were you surprised that someone could perceive a barren expanse of scrub bush as maternal, nurturing, and beneficent?
Also in this chapter we encounter Fatima's brother Omar, the great influence on and inspiration for her writing. In this part of the story, they begin to forge the immutable axis of a kinship that forms a key element of the plot. Were you persuaded that Omar could exert such a strong influence on his much younger sibling?
For those of you just joining this discussion, the Prologue and first nine chapters of "A Thousand Veils" can be read online at Google Books (http://books.google.com/books?id=vS1z...).
How did you react to the description of the desert? Were you surprised that someone could perceive a barren expanse of scrub bush as maternal, nurturing, and beneficent?
Also in this chapter we encounter Fatima's brother Omar, the great influence on and inspiration for her writing. In this part of the story, they begin to forge the immutable axis of a kinship that forms a key element of the plot. Were you persuaded that Omar could exert such a strong influence on his much younger sibling?
For those of you just joining this discussion, the Prologue and first nine chapters of "A Thousand Veils" can be read online at Google Books (http://books.google.com/books?id=vS1z...).