A Stranger in Olondria

In this hypnotic debut Jevik the pepper merchant's son dreams of far Olondria. Raised by his tutors on the written dreams of the distant city, when he gets the opportunity to travel there, his life is thrown off track when he is haunted by the ghost of a girl whom he must face down before he can go free. Reading has never been so seductive, so dangerous. Sofia Samatar is an American of Somali and Swiss German Mennonite background. Her writing has appeared in Clarkesworld , Stone Telling , Apex , and Strange Horizons . She wrote A Stranger in Olondria in Yambio, South Sudan, where she worked as an English teacher. She has worked in Egypt and now lives in the USA with her family.