"Tales of anguish, longing, lust and lvoe all find their way to The Stone Woman ? Ali paints a vivid picture of a fading world." - New York Times Book Review "A richly woven tapestry that, even before its completion, merits comparison with Naguib Mahfouz's celebrated Cairo Trilogy. A great work in progress." - Kirkus Reviews "Ali spins a web of tales that is as inventive and fantastical as the Arabian nights." - The Times "... an Eastern Magic Mountain." - London Review of Books "This Chekhov-like scenario of intense emotion within a creaking social structure constructs a rich picture of history and the way we think about history." - Times Literary Supplement

Tariq Ali is a writer and film-maker. He has written over a dozen books on world history and politics, five novels, and scripts for both stage and screen. The first novel of the Islam Quintet, Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree, was awarded the Archbishop San Clemente del Instituto Rosalia deCastro Prize for Best Foreign Language Fiction published in Spain in 1994 and, like The Book of Saladin, has been translated into several languages.