Review by Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Having escaped his narrow-minded and isolated village in Palestine, Saeed moves to the city, marries, opens a bookstore, then returns with his pregnant wife. She gives birth to twin girls – Shams and Qamar – but the family is exiled to the village outskirts, accused of bringing a curse. Although they prove themselves by lifting the curse, it comes at the cost of their lives and the fate of Qamar, who has inherited her mother’s healing powers and her father’s wanderlust. While her sister settles down with a husband and family in the nearest city, Qamar travels – first to Jerusalem, then to Gaza and Egypt, and finally across deserts and seas to touch down throughout the known world. Her journey leads her to kind strangers and terrible misfortune. All the while, she maintains control of her life, using her intelligence, skills, and, at one point, her ability to pass as a teenage boy (despite being almost 30 years old) to serve a captain of a pirate ship.

Published by Interlink, which specializes in literature for children, teens, and adults from the Middle East, Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands by the Palestinian author Sonia Nimr translated by Marcia Lynx Qualey, celebrates the power of books and storytelling. Like Scheherazade, Qamar tells stories to save hers and others’ lives when their caravan is captured by highwaymen, and her education – a rarity for women at the time – and healing abilities place her in the confidence of nobles and royalty. Although she perceives a life of adventure as her fate, she actively chooses it over a life of safety and limitations. At one point, she renounces her adventures, until the bonds of love drive her back to the sea and its dangers. The lively first-person narrative will enthrall adventure-minded readers, ages 10 and up; fantasy and reality blend seamlessly into a novel that spotlights independent women and their power.

Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands
Written by Sonia Nimr
Translated from Arabic by Marcia Lynx Qualey
2021. Interlink

Originally published in Arabic in 2013 by Tamer Institute, Ramallah, Palestine

ISBN: 978-1-62371-866-4 (pb)

Awards: 2021 GLLI Translated Young Adult Book Prize Shortlist, Etisalat Award; 2021 Palestine Book Awards, Translation Award 

Reviews: Kirkus

Lyn Miller-Lachmann is the author of the YA historical novel Torch (Carolrhoda Lab, 2022), winner of the 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature and a 2022 Booklist Editors’ Choice, and the YA verse novel Eyes Open (Carolrhoda Lab 2024), chosen by Booklist as a Top 10 Historical Fiction for Youth, 2024. She wrote the picture book Ways to Play (Levine Querido, 2023), illustrated by Gabriel Alborozo, and co-authored with Zetta Elliott the middle grade verse novel Moonwalking (FSG, 2022). Her recent nonfiction includes a biography of Temple Grandin in the She Persisted chapter book series from Philomel and Film Makers: 15 Groundbreaking Women Directors (co-authored with Tanisia “Tee” Moore) from Chicago Review Press. She translates books for youth from Portuguese to English, including the 2023 YA graphic novel Pardalita by Joana Estrela, published by Levine Querido, which was named a Batchelder Honor Book in 2024.