A Thousand Nights is a gripping, expansive, Arabian Nights-inspired YA anthology. These 15 dazzling short stories, written by BIPOC women and framed by editors Nafiza Azad (Road of the Lost) and Intisar Khanani (Thorn), highlight those forced to flee their homelands in the face of colonialism, oppression, and war.
At 17, Nusaybah loses the last of her family, burying her mother next to her grandfather under an olive tree, with no imam, prayers at the mosque, or fellow mourners; her father and brothers were conscripted by the Muhtaleen long ago. Nusaybah leaves the family Quran with a neighbor for safekeeping and begins to cross the desert to find a new home. As she journeys, she meets other young people and, to pass the time, they tell stories of the people and homes they have each been forced to leave behind. Nusaybah tells of a girl stolen by a jinn and emancipated by herself in "Your Marvi" by Zeba Shahnaz; Khawla, Nusaybah's first companion, begins her tale ("For Bread and Olives" by Ream Shukairy) "with the words the storyteller in my village always used: Once there was and twice there was not...."
The framework in which the refugees' stories--about djinn, Naga, rukh (a legendary bird of prey)--is embedded in Nusaybah's and her companions' trek. The collected narratives feel authentic to Azad and Khanani's frame tale as the authors rework myths and legends from around the Middle East and Asia. This anthology is a beautiful testament to the human spirit, and the power of hope and imagination in the face of unspeakable choices. --Michelle Anya Anjirbag, freelance reviewer