A historical tapestry of border-crossing travelers, of students, wanderers, martyrs & invaders,The White Mosqueis a memoiristic, prismatic record of a journey through Uzbekistan & of the strange shifts, encounters, & accidents that combine to create an identityIn the late 19th century, a group ofGerman-speakingMennonitestraveled fromRussiaintoCentral Asia, where their charismatic leader predicted Christ would return.Over a century later,Sofia Samatarjoins a tour following their path, fascinated not by the hardships of their journey, but by its aftermath: the establishment of a small Christian village in the MuslimKhanate of Khiva. NamedAk Metchet,“The White Mosque,”after theMennonites’whitewashed church, the village lasted for fifty years.In pursuit of this curious history,Samatardiscovers a variety of characters whose lives intersect around the ancientSilk Road, from a 15th-century astronomer-king, to an intrepidSwisswoman traveler of the 1930s, to the firstUzbekphotographer, & explores such topics asCentral Asian cinema,Mennonitemartyrs, &Samatar’sown complex upbringing as the daughter of aSwiss-Mennonite& aSomali-Muslim, raised as aMennoniteof color inAmerica.A secular pilgrimage to a lost village & a near-forgotten history,The White Mosquetraces the porous & ever-expanding borders of identity, asking: How do we enter the stories of others? And how, out of the tissue of life, with its weird incidents, buried archives, & startling connections, does a person construct a self?SOFIA SAMATARis the author of the novelsA Stranger in Olondria&The Winged Histories, the short story collection,Tender, &Monster Portraits, a collaboration with her brother, the artistDel Samatar.Sofia’swork has received the William L. Crawford Award, the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, the British Fantasy Award, & the World Fantasy Award.…