The Qaraq and the Subversive Manuscript

EXPLORE HIDDEN HISTORY. TASTE FORBIDDEN LOVE. BRAVE THE FIRE. A thousand years ago, a secret circle of storytellers created a forbidden version of The Thousand and One Nights—a manuscript so radical that powerful forces conspired to erase it from history. Now Ooma Qadir is haunted by visions of its creation. Ooma belongs to a qaraq, a group of souls who have reincarnated together through countless lifetimes and can recall their shared pasts. Their memories range from Bedouin poets to albino elephants to lovesick cavedogs to subversive storytellers. But in this lifetime she has been cast out. Desperate for acceptance, burdened by the shame of her darker incarnations, and consumed by love for a man she cannot have, Ooma sees in these visions a chance to reclaim her place. For she can reveal an astonishing truth: the qaraq was the secret circle from 1001 AD. The revelation begins in fire. On 9/11, as Ooma flees the burning Tower with Amar Rash, the man she secretly loves, the visions set her mind aflame. In the aftermath of Amar's harrowing rescue, the maddened Ooma struggles to recover as grief, loss, and old resentments fracture the qaraq. She fights to convince the group that the mysterious manuscript holds the key to their future. But Ooma's hunger for belonging, and for Amar, may destroy the very family of souls she's trying to save. The Qaraq and the Subversive Manuscript is Book Three of The Reincarnation Chronicles, Stephen Weinstock's Arabian Nights–inspired saga of souls bound together across millennia. Structured like a modern Arabian Nights, 1001, The Reincarnation Chronicles delivers a visionary blend of inventive fantasy, historical mystery, and whimsical mysticism. Step into this wildly imaginative series by Stephen Weinstock, whose own musical past life helps shape this symphonic epic. PRAISE FOR 1001, THE REINCARNATION CHRONICLES "Stephen Weinstock's imagination is fevered, surreal, fantastical. It will take you places you never dreamed you would go." Barry Jay Kaplan, author, Black Orchid "Whether you believe in reincarnation or not, this is a book that will expand your universe." Donald Kroitsch, publisher "How do you hold it all in one thought, one impression? You don't. You read every one of the 616 pages then sit back and bask in a satisfied feeling of having lived through an unpredictable, bewitching journey ... through millennia, into outer space, transported and transfixed: it is an experience of huge proportion." Sarah Berges, editor and choreographer, Sarah Berges Dance "The kind of book that keeps you up later than you intended at night." Brendan Pulver, Artist "In this volume, the characters have lived in many forms, including a lovesick mermaid, frolicking dogs, and a horny glacier." Robin Gregory, The Improbable Wonders of Moojie Littleman