“Unexpectedly Nabil stepped out into an octagonal courtyard. In the centre sat a beautiful star shaped basin. Two overlaid squares turned around a common centre. Eight-pointed. Around him there were twelve dark door openings. Above them were twelve dark portholes. Through a circular aperture in the top of the tall dome, he saw above him the distant paleness of Aleppo’s winter sky. He had never seen anything like it.” ( from The Octagonal Room)
Continue reading“Samira, she said again, this time audibly but with a low voice, as she smiled faintly at herself in the mirror. Katarina had picked the name from a shop that sold crystal vases. Samira. It had been a spontaneous whim which in an instant had become her new truth. A truth whose shielding falsehood Sherif might now be able to threaten. She detached her eyes from her face in the mirror and looked down into her coffee cup, the untouched milk foam reached slightly above the rim. The reflection of her camera next to the cup was a proof that she was now a photographer.” Chapter 4, Caught
