A Poet of the Invisible World ~ Paperback ~ Michael Golding

A Poet of the Invisible World is the story of a boy born in thirteenth-century Persia with four ears instead of two. Orphaned as an infant, he's taken into a Sufi order, where he meets an assortment of dervishes and is placed upon a path towards spiritual awakening. He studies the Koran and the principles of Sufism. He meets his first love, a handsome youth named Vishpar. When marauders attack the lodge, however, he's swept off to a series of gruelling adventures and an assortment of shifting roles: tea boy in the court of a Spanish sultan, shepherd on a barren farm in the mountains, sybarite in a bustling city on the north coast of Africa. As he stumbles from one painful experience to the next, he grows into manhood. And when fate leads him to a Sufi order perched high in the mountains, he's ready to begin the true work of spiritual development. Now the tests are more subtle: the animosity of a fellow Sufi who has dogged him since childhood, a love affair with an acolyte who's been brought under his wing. But each trial shatters another obstacle within-and leads him on toward transcendence.Author BiographyMichael Golding was born in Philadelphia and educated at Duke, Oxford, and the University of California at Irvine, where he received the Gellman Founder's Award. He began his career as an actor, appearing in numerous Off-Broadway shows. His first novel, Simple Prayers, was published in 1994. It has been translated into nine foreign languages and a film adaptation is in development. Benjamin's Gift, his second novel, was published in 2000. Michael's translation of Alessandro Baricco's stage play Novecento opened the 2002 Edinburgh Festival and his screenplay adaptation of the best-selling novel Silk was released in 2007. Directed by Francois Girard and starring Keira Knightley and Alfred Molina, it was a featured selection at the Toronto Film Festival. Michael has lived in New York, Paris, Venice, London, Amsterdam, and Moscow and resides in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas in Northern California. He teaches writing and literature at Yuba College. His third novel is A Poet of the Invisible World.