An unexpected by product of this reading challenge is, I’ve been introduced to my story telling soul mate. Tahir Shah doesn’t know that we are story mates yet, but we are. I have no idea how I landed on the Caliph’s House book one lazy Sunday, but I’m now convinced it was some sort of divine intervention that brought me to it. There’s no way to explain it, but I needed to read In Arabian Nights to fully understand my own journey as a writer and dare I say it – as a travel writer. And to read In Arabian Nights, I had to read the Caliph’s House first. And maybe more importantly, about 31 years ago, I had to buy a copy of the 1001 Tales of the Arabian Nights at a garage sale and devour it in a single summer. Finding this story was a long time coming. 

I have always been enchanted by the Middle East, Morocco, and Egypt. Something about these faraway mystical lands draws me to them, and time and time again I find myself reading stories about genies and mystics, caravans and crowded markets. However, I’ve never read a true story from one of those places that was as entertaining and gripping as The Caliph’s House. Tahir Shah shares his journey from London to Morocco, and brings us along for one heck of a year! Buying a house in Casablanca, working to restore it to it’s original glory, and dealing with jinns and jinxes along the way. I couldn’t put the book down.  View Post