In the Empty Quarter

A woman’s journey to self-discovery collides with the ancient legends of the Rubʿ al-Khali desert in this short historical fantasy by the award-winning author of Alif the Unseen.

Jean is the young wife of an American businessman searching for oil near the Persian Gulf in 1952. In the bustle of the market and the dark eyes of her husband’s colleague, Jean is searching for something else: a life far from the one she knows. Then, after one wrong step in a desert gully, Jean finds herself trapped in a cave-in—and she’s not alone. When legend comes to life and offers a path forward into the unknown, for Jean there is no going back.