The Jewel and the Ember - by Jennifer Heath (Hardcover)

About the Book

Love stories culled from various pre-Islamic folktales and poems, drawn from ancient sources throughout the Middle East. Includes eleven tales adapted and retold from lengthy translations that provide alternatives to more common sagas.

Book Synopsis

The Jewel and the Ember is a unique collection of enchanting, enlightening, joyful, painful, and funny pre-Islamic love stories drawn from ancient sources throughout the Middle East, illustrating our eternal search for enduring love and encouraging the heart to sing.

The human soul is eternally engaged in the search for enduring love.

The Jewel and the Ember is a unique collection of compelling, enlightening, sometimes joyful, sometimes painful, often funny love stories culled from pre- Islamic folktales and poems, drawn from ancient sources throughout the Middle East, including Zoroastrian Persia, Turkey, Afghanistan, Moorish Spain, and Arabia. These eleven timeless tales resonate across cultures and ethnicities, adapted and retold (though not reinvented) from lengthy, dense translations and provide alternatives to the all-too-common Arabian Nights and other Orientalist sagas.

Here, readers will encounter strong, smart, self-sufficient women--far different from the clichéd, frequently shrouded creatures characterized in popular fables--and vulnerable men--full participants in the sufferings, longings, ecstasies, foibles, and complexities shared by all lovers.

In haunting, entertaining, richly embroidered language, The Jewel and the Ember speaks of desire, sensuality, and passion. It welcomes us into lands and societies of which few in the West are acquainted. These enchanting stories illustrate love's universal values and encourage the heart to sing.

Review Quotes

"Heath has collected 11 love stories drawn from pre-Islamic folktales and poems and has adapted and retold them for a contemporary audience ... The tales of romance and love depict complex male and strong female characters rather than one-note stereotypical protagonists. Each story is accompanied by examples of romantic poetry ... Fans of fairy tales and folklore will appreciate the heroism, heartbreak, and romance of these stories."--Booklist

"Love is covered in startling breadth in The Jewel and the Ember, a shimmering anthology that gathers tales of devotion and treachery."--Foreword Reviews

About the Author

Jennifer Heath is an independent scholar, award-winning cultural journalist, curator, and activist, born in Australia and educated in Latin America, Europe, and Central Asia.. She studied history and folklore, has traveled extensively throughout the Muslim world and is the author or editor of fifteen books of fiction and non-fiction, including The Scimitar and the Veil: Extraordinary Women of Islam, The Veil: Women Writers on its History, Lore and Politics, Children of Afghanistan: The Path to Peace, and, with Ashraf Zahedi, Book of the Disappeared: the Quest for Transnational Justice.