The Foreigners' Quarter: A novel

A novel of mid-15th century Venice and Tunisia

When young Venetian ne’er-do-well Antonio is stricken with love at first sight of the aristocratic Maria, his schemes to win her affections are met with disdainful rejection. Days later, the two are kidnapped by pirates during Carnival celebrations and hauled onto a ship headed to the coast of Tunisia and sold to slave traders. Thus begins their new life as foreign captives (‘iluj) in mid-15th century Tunisia, but on drastically divergent trajec...