Short stories by Sofia Samatar
Listing 9 stories.
In the Land of Witches, an enslaved girl learns the magic of Dream Science and liberates herself from her master. Her account of the town inspires a present-day researcher, trapped in her war-torn hometown, and a band of witches to pilgrimage to the site. An enslaved girl's fantastical account of the Land of Witches encourages a group of witches and a present-day researcher, marooned in her war-torn hometown, to locate the site through the magic of dreams.
A group of girls living in an agrarian commune go to extraordinary lengths to protect a technologically advanced humanoid robot from its makers.
After they have been removed from their parents and send to a camp to be brainwashed, two girls connect over an act of institutional rebellion. One suffers for it, and one goes on to live her life as she is supposed to—but will she be satisfied with leaving things alone?
A woman recounts her travels to and from Iram, a lost city mentioned in the Qur'an.
In 1907, an African porter working for a British hunter starts cataloguing ogres of East Africa with the help of a woman informant. When she reveals she is an ogre herself, he must decide if he can help her fulfill her destiny.
A collection of excerpts regarding humanity's various pursuits of science throughout time.
After her selkie mother leaves to return to the sea, a teenage girl falls for her female co-worker. Haunted by her mother's abandonment, the girl finds it difficult to confess her feelings or fears as the two become best friends.
In a dystopian American Midwest, a young Arab-American woman tries to get in touch with a past lover as she journeys through the Dakotas with her dying mother who's a part of "the Movement," a philosophy based on continuous transience and the avoidance of violent places.
An elderly Egyptian servant tells the allegorical story of the white-footed gazelle, a series of vignettes tethered together by shared characters and themes. When finished, the servant suggests that beasts are not confined to fairy tales and also exist, in the form of common people, in everyday life.