Book 2- post 1

Hav- Jan Morris

While looking at the book’s list to choose from, I came to a conclusion that Hav by Jan Morris will be the second book that I would like to read. To be honest, there is not any specific reason for choosing this book despite the fact that I did not know what or where Hav is, and it was something that fascinated me to explore more. It took me a while to understand even the introduction of this book, since I couldn’t understand if Hav is a real place, or a fictional place made by the author. 

As Morris stated in her book: “It is not an easy book to describe. Hav itself is not easy to describe…”. Indeed, it was not easy for me to understand. After reading the introduction a few times, I realized that Hav is in fact science fiction, and exists as a mirror held up to several millennia of pan-Mediterranean history, customs, and politics. Hav is an example of an alternate geography to a place that does not exists in the atlas or the histories, but gives us exuberantly realistic and genuinely knowledge to how things have been and are now in Saudi Arabia, Turkey or Downing Street in London. I would like to continue reading and explore more about this interesting and mysterious book in way.