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The Wind Thief
A tale of obsession and redemption, The Wind Thief is the story of two souls who are swept from land to land, one in search of a home, the other in search of a war, and both ever a step behind the peace they seek. Ajay, a young thief from India, is on his way to a better life when he is forced to flee Algiers and subsequently gets lost in the Sahara desert. He is saved by a strange young woman who believes she can talk to the winds, a gift that will save mankind from an imminent apocalypse only she can stop. Ajay has no choice but to follow her out of the barren wasteland, intending to abandon her once they reach Morocco. Yet when he gets the chance to escape her, he realizes he no longer can. He follows, and continues to follow, even when serious dangers loom.
203 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
About the author
Martha Engber
9 books98 followersMartha Engber is the author of six books. SCATTERED LIGHT (https://vineleavespress.myshopify.com...), the sequel to WINTER LIGHT, an IPPY Gold Medal Winner for YA, will be published Nov. 25, 2025.
Her other fiction includes THE FALCON, THE WOLF AND THE HUMMINGBIRD, a historical novel, and THE WIND THIEF. Her nonfiction includes BLISS ROAD, a memoir about her neurodiverse family, and GROWING GREAT CHARACTERS, a resource for writers.
A workshop facilitator and speaker, she’s had a full-length play produced in Hollywood and fiction published in a variety of literary journals. She and her screenwriting team have optioned a TV series to a studio. She encourages readers to connect via her website, MarthaEngber.com.
Her other fiction includes THE FALCON, THE WOLF AND THE HUMMINGBIRD, a historical novel, and THE WIND THIEF. Her nonfiction includes BLISS ROAD, a memoir about her neurodiverse family, and GROWING GREAT CHARACTERS, a resource for writers.
A workshop facilitator and speaker, she’s had a full-length play produced in Hollywood and fiction published in a variety of literary journals. She and her screenwriting team have optioned a TV series to a studio. She encourages readers to connect via her website, MarthaEngber.com.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 19, 2009
Beginning among the shifting dunes and menacing storms of the Sahara Desert between Algeria and Morocco, The Wind Thief is a modern-day fable that takes the reader on a journey across the world and the through the human heart. The two protagonists, Ajay and Madina, are both troubled youths, each absorbed in a solitary quest.
Ajay, a loner and a pickpocket, seeks a life of material ease in which he is able to support himself through his talent as a drummer. Lost in the desert, he encounters Madina unexpectedly and hopes to use her knowledge of the desert to save himself. At first he finds her only innocent and earnest, vulnerable and childlike, easy to manipulate. But he soon discovers there is a great darkness lurking within her: Since Madina's traumatic childhood, she has been haunted by the voices of spirit-like Winds, and now she follows the signs she believes the Winds give her, urging her to stop the impending end of the world. Ajay writes off her Winds as delusion. Yet these two souls, who could not be more different, find connection in their music.
As they travel together, they begin to know that their quests are conjoined; they have much to teach each other and learn from each other. Their quest turns inward, as it becomes clear that these two damaged souls are really searching for a deeper human connection, for love, for the sense of being needed.
With sensual imagery, Martha Engber paints for us a world eerily populated by a host of mysterious, benevolent, and dangerous Winds. The reader is torn between wanting to believe in Madina's world of personified Winds, a world of chaos, power, and possibility, and Ajay's concrete world of the here and now, the practical and real. It turns out to be the same choice that Madina must make, and the reader roots for her both ways. But what it costs Madina is almost everything. This story takes the reader through the discovery of what may be lost or gained by choosing either, and whether it is possible to have it both ways.
Ajay, a loner and a pickpocket, seeks a life of material ease in which he is able to support himself through his talent as a drummer. Lost in the desert, he encounters Madina unexpectedly and hopes to use her knowledge of the desert to save himself. At first he finds her only innocent and earnest, vulnerable and childlike, easy to manipulate. But he soon discovers there is a great darkness lurking within her: Since Madina's traumatic childhood, she has been haunted by the voices of spirit-like Winds, and now she follows the signs she believes the Winds give her, urging her to stop the impending end of the world. Ajay writes off her Winds as delusion. Yet these two souls, who could not be more different, find connection in their music.
As they travel together, they begin to know that their quests are conjoined; they have much to teach each other and learn from each other. Their quest turns inward, as it becomes clear that these two damaged souls are really searching for a deeper human connection, for love, for the sense of being needed.
With sensual imagery, Martha Engber paints for us a world eerily populated by a host of mysterious, benevolent, and dangerous Winds. The reader is torn between wanting to believe in Madina's world of personified Winds, a world of chaos, power, and possibility, and Ajay's concrete world of the here and now, the practical and real. It turns out to be the same choice that Madina must make, and the reader roots for her both ways. But what it costs Madina is almost everything. This story takes the reader through the discovery of what may be lost or gained by choosing either, and whether it is possible to have it both ways.
April 17, 2020
This story is one of great passion, adventure, and love. You are left changed by the journey of the mystical and mysterious Madina and Ajay, a thief strung along with her to save mankind from the war of the winds. After reading, you not only feel a deeper connection to the wind but to what the purpose of love really is. Engber does a fantastic job weaving together a powerful tale of adventure and love, leaving you wanting more. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to step out of themselves for a moment and into a daunting tale of courage, love, and spirit.
October 23, 2009
What do you get when a thief falls for a hero?
In this case you get a beautiful landscape populated with riveting characters and a bittersweet adventure. Ajay, a thief who always knows the angles and has his exits marked, finds there is one place he can’t escape from, his heart. His captor, Medina, is a quixotic woman who will sacrifice everything, including Ajay, to save the world from destruction.
From the burning desert to the smothering jungle these two broken people pursue their obsessions and find love and healing along the way.
Having been to both the desert (okay, not the Sahara, but a desert none the less) and the jungle, I loved the sensory realism of the locales in this book. The scenery was grand and sweeping, but at the same time personal, intimate, and accurate.
I was blown away (no pun intended) by the way the winds, Sister Wind, joker winds, spy winds, land lovers, and lulling breezes became characters in the book. It was so naturally done, the way a person, once conscious of something, notices it constantly. I wanted Medina’s wild theories to be true because the winds were such a constant and emotional companion to Ajay and Medina, both threatening and helpful at times.
I loved the careful and tentative way their relationship developed. Such a development felt true and natural to two such damaged souls. It was a true pleasure to see both of them blossom and grow.
The author did a fantastic job of winding themes of sacrifice, obsession, love, and redemption throughout this novel. It is a story that will stay with me for a long time to come.
In this case you get a beautiful landscape populated with riveting characters and a bittersweet adventure. Ajay, a thief who always knows the angles and has his exits marked, finds there is one place he can’t escape from, his heart. His captor, Medina, is a quixotic woman who will sacrifice everything, including Ajay, to save the world from destruction.
From the burning desert to the smothering jungle these two broken people pursue their obsessions and find love and healing along the way.
Having been to both the desert (okay, not the Sahara, but a desert none the less) and the jungle, I loved the sensory realism of the locales in this book. The scenery was grand and sweeping, but at the same time personal, intimate, and accurate.
I was blown away (no pun intended) by the way the winds, Sister Wind, joker winds, spy winds, land lovers, and lulling breezes became characters in the book. It was so naturally done, the way a person, once conscious of something, notices it constantly. I wanted Medina’s wild theories to be true because the winds were such a constant and emotional companion to Ajay and Medina, both threatening and helpful at times.
I loved the careful and tentative way their relationship developed. Such a development felt true and natural to two such damaged souls. It was a true pleasure to see both of them blossom and grow.
The author did a fantastic job of winding themes of sacrifice, obsession, love, and redemption throughout this novel. It is a story that will stay with me for a long time to come.
Read
November 27, 2009The Wind Thief is a deceptively simple story, written in a Hemingway-esque style that comes to resound in the heart. We first meet orphaned young Ajay carrying jewelry he has stolen from a shop in Algiers. In order to avoid the police, he has been forced to hop onto the back of a vegetable truck out of town. Now alone in the harsh Sahara, Ajay must brave fierce heat and sandstorms to reach Morocco. There he plans to steal enough money from tourists to buy a ticket to New York, where he expects a wonderful future playing his drums.
Thirsty and exhausted, Ajay is amazed to see an apparition-like figure scaling the sheer rock face of a desert cliff. The figure turns out to be Madina, a strange young woman, also orphaned, who is being prostituted by her aunt. Closer, Ajay sees Madina's face is scarred, pulled by "a thick rope of pink" into a "permanent expression of sad amusement." Madina believes the winds talk to her and that she must follow their instructions to avert a great calamity that will destroy all living things.
Martha Engber's voice remains spare and unsentimental as she leads us through the bleak yet beautiful landscape inhabited by these two obsessed travelers, the outcast thief and the crazed desert prostitute. The Wind Thief is a magical, memorable tale.
Thirsty and exhausted, Ajay is amazed to see an apparition-like figure scaling the sheer rock face of a desert cliff. The figure turns out to be Madina, a strange young woman, also orphaned, who is being prostituted by her aunt. Closer, Ajay sees Madina's face is scarred, pulled by "a thick rope of pink" into a "permanent expression of sad amusement." Madina believes the winds talk to her and that she must follow their instructions to avert a great calamity that will destroy all living things.
Martha Engber's voice remains spare and unsentimental as she leads us through the bleak yet beautiful landscape inhabited by these two obsessed travelers, the outcast thief and the crazed desert prostitute. The Wind Thief is a magical, memorable tale.
August 6, 2011
The Wind Thief is a beautifully written literary piece about a young man who decides to save a broken young woman with more scars than just the one across one side of her face. The Wind Thief is a tale so gripping you're captive from the first line. And if you're a writer, you'll find yourself studying every word, trying to capture the essence of great writing, until without warning, you've forgotten you're even reading at all.
Miss Engber's prose will sting and tug and pull at your heartstrings no matter how tough you think you are. Because while you're on a journey from the Sahara Desert to Morocco to South America to Jamaica, you're no longer simply a reader, you're a participant. The Wind Thief is what great writing should be about. A journey on the wings of a quest that will stay with you long after you've reached the end.
The Wind Thief, a story of salvation, yearning, survival, is rich with metaphors in a language that is easy to read and to escape into. Ajay sets out to save Madina and does just that. Madina sets out to save the world and ends up understanding more about life than most of us ever do.
Scars, fear, faith, but most of all The Wind Thief is about heroes.
Miss Engber's prose will sting and tug and pull at your heartstrings no matter how tough you think you are. Because while you're on a journey from the Sahara Desert to Morocco to South America to Jamaica, you're no longer simply a reader, you're a participant. The Wind Thief is what great writing should be about. A journey on the wings of a quest that will stay with you long after you've reached the end.
The Wind Thief, a story of salvation, yearning, survival, is rich with metaphors in a language that is easy to read and to escape into. Ajay sets out to save Madina and does just that. Madina sets out to save the world and ends up understanding more about life than most of us ever do.
Scars, fear, faith, but most of all The Wind Thief is about heroes.
December 29, 2009
I found the descriptive scenes in the novel to be well done, in that they did a good job of evoking vivid mental imagery. The book's characters maintain an interesting chemistry throughout the novel and help to keep the reader wondering how their story will be resolved. I did have some questions about the conclusion of the book, however I found the ending to be satisfying in the way the main characters are left. Overall I would reccomend this book. It is a quick read filled with solid descriptive writing and some interesting themes and story twists. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
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April 19, 2010
Martha Engber literally wrote the book on character development. So I was more than excited to read her novel The Wind Thief. She didn't disappoint. The tension between her beautifully formulated characters Ajay and Madina was palpable from Page 1 and held me captive till the very last sentence on Page 203. But this novel is so much more than character. Engber takes us on journey that nimbly moves from desert to sea, from Africa to South America. The Wind Thief is filled with charm, wit, mystery, and a vivid landscape. But what makes this story great is the story of human connection. Also... I will never look at the wind in the same way again.
January 4, 2010
This was a lovely, lovely book written by my good friend Martha Engber. I thoroughly enjoyed the story & grew to love the 2 main characters enough that the ending had me in tears. Thanks for writing this story Martha.
March 16, 2010
I read this on the airplane going across the country. What a great read! This book was written by a friend of a friend and it was a very pleasant surprise. It was well written and very engaging. An epic tale of love and mystery. Well done, Martha, I hope to tell you in person soon.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews