Empty Canvas: 4 books

Set amongst the beginning of the 'Arab Spring' in Tunis, Mariam, a young musician, secludes herself away in order to compose the music she long desires to create. Having recently returned home after a failed relationship with a fellow musician at a conservatory in Paris, Mariam seeks the advice...

*Tunis, 1904. Ernesto Nicari, a laborer living among the Sicilian immigrant community in La Goulette, and his wife Luisa, dream of one day going to America. Unable to conceive children, they are destined to live a life together alone. Leyla is a seventeen year old Berber girl who ran away from home...

1997: A brash American journalist, Claudio Nicari, and his Tunisian colleague Sarah, go on assignment to interview the elusive and secretive Omar Abbadi, the spiritual leader and 'Commander of The Faithful' of a violent Islamist group called the Algerian Islamic Front. Accompanied by their cameraman...

In this final novel of an informal quartet, begun with The Other Side of The Orange Grove, If The Full Moon Loves You, Why Worry About The Stars?, and Maqam, Diego Nicari, a travel writer, makes a sojourn to Tunis in order to research his family history. Knowing his great-grandparents and grandfather...