Bryn Hammond
asked
Michael Golding:
I'd be glad to hear about your influences for A Poet of the Invisible World, or what attracted you to the Sufis of thirteenth century Iran for a novel. It's a wonderful setting. Did you have any historical Sufis or poets whose lives were an inspiration?
Michael Golding
Thanks for your question, Bryn. It's always wonderful to connect with a reader. In 2005, I came across a collection of poems by the great Sufi poet Jalal ad-Din Rumi. I’d read him before, but this time his words penetrated in a new way. I began to wonder where such clarity came from. Such grace. Such spiritual depth. What did a man or woman have to go through to reach such divine understanding? So I gave birth to my protagonist, Nouri, and followed him on his way. The book is not about Rumi himself. But the spiritual path always requires great trials, so something of Rumi's spirit and life surely informs the text.
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