{"product_id":"the-white-mosque-9781646220977","title":"The White Mosque","description":"\u003cb\u003eA historical tapestry of border-crossing travelers, of students, wanderers, martyrs and invaders, \u003ci\u003eThe White Mosque\u003c\/i\u003e is a memoiristic, prismatic record of a journey through Uzbekistan and of the strange shifts, encounters, and accidents that combine to create an identity\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the late nineteenth century, a group of German-speaking Mennonites traveled from Russia into Central Asia, where their charismatic leader predicted Christ would return. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOver a century later, Sofia Samatar joins a tour following their path, fascinated not by the hardships of their journey, but by its aftermath: the establishment of a small Christian village in the Muslim Khanate of Khiva. Named Ak Metchet, \"The White Mosque,\" after the Mennonites' whitewashed church, the village lasted for fifty years. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn pursuit of this curious history, Samatar discovers a variety of characters whose lives intersect around the ancient Silk Road, from a fifteenth-century astronomer-king, to an intrepid Swiss woman traveler of the 1930s, to the first Uzbek photographer, and explores such topics as Central Asian cinema, Mennonite martyrs, and Samatar's own complex upbringing as the daughter of a Swiss-Mennonite and a Somali-Muslim, raised as a Mennonite of color in America. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA secular pilgrimage to a lost village and a near-forgotten history, \u003ci\u003eThe White Mosque\u003c\/i\u003e traces the porous and ever-expanding borders of identity, asking: How do we enter the stories of others? And how, out of the tissue of life, with its weird incidents, buried archives, and startling connections, does a person construct a self?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Catapult\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/25\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781646220977\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 336\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.25lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal Prepub Alert\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/01\/2022 pg. 13\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/30\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/01\/2022 pg. 106\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Sofia Samatar","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42353133617333,"sku":"9781646220977","price":22.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_6a8bcff5-4d04-48f3-bc54-66f640cd86d5.jpg?v=1661844076","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-white-mosque-9781646220977","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}