Synopses & Reviews
A Foreign Correspondent's Search for Her Cultural and Spiritual Identity
What began as an assignment from her editor at the Wall Street Journal to investigate "America's hottest new fad," the secrets of sexual ecstasy in Tantra, became a story that would lead reporter Asra Nomani halfway around the world and change forever her life, faith, and self-identity. From a New Age Tantric seminar in Santa Cruz to sitting at the feet of the Dalai Lama in India, from meditation caves in Thailand to crossing the Khyber Pass with Muslim militants and staring down the barrel of an Afghan soldier's AK-47, Nomani's trek unexpectedly climaxes in Pakistan, where she risks great danger in joining the hunt for kidnapped fellow reporter Danny Pearl. She travels the globe in search of this elusive "divine love," but ultimately hers is a journey of self-discovery in which the divine within herself and within all women -- all "tantrikas" -- is revealed.
Review
“Nomani writes with searing honesty about journeys of the body and soul.” Geraldine Brooks, author of Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women and Foreign Correspondence
Review
“This book is about true discovery....Its about crossing boarders of a troubled world with eyes and heart wide open.” Ron Suskind, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of A Hope in the Unseen
About the Author
Asra Q. Nomani, a Wall Street Journal correspondent, has also written about the war in Afghanistan for Salon. A Muslim born in India, Nomani grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia, where her father helped start the city's only mosque. At eighteen, she traveled to visit relatives in Pakistan to learn more about her religion and culture, a desire she continued through her work as a journalist and in writing this book. She is currently working on The Daughters of Hajira, a book about her pilgrimage to Mecca. Nomani lives in Morgantown, West Virginia with her family and infant son, Shibli.