I. The Puzzle: Three Mirrors The Three Mirrors Mirror I: Blasphemy and Batak In 1989, a work of fiction that interpreted the life of Muhammad through the tools of modern literature was declared blasphemous. Not because it called for violence, but because it offered an…

I don’t know whether someone told me this or I read it somewhere, but tonight one of those wise-sounding phrases has been spinning around in my head – the kind of thing you’d proudly serve up at a dinner table. It goes like this: “Nothing ages you faster than fulfilled dreams.”…

The trembling light of the tallow candle – a useful and necessary object, if foul-smelling – mixed with the flicker of the hearth, so that the shadows of the three men, seated on low three-legged stools and taking turns sipping from a bowl of thick bean stew, for which Hristo…

Köpenik, Berlin, the beginning of the new century „This isn’t you,” she said in a tremulous voice. „I don’t recognize you like this.” Regaining control, she repeated, „This isn’t you.” He flared up. „You, how do you know who I am? You think you know me so well? After a few…