This story came to me and entered my soul. It did not need a key or an invite, for it already belonged. It walked in, shook my foundation and set my heart on fire. We danced around the flames and with every twirl, I grabbed a few words until I was burnt to ashes.
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Tishtar runs a small legal practice in Melbourne where he has a new client, Habiba, who seeks to bring her orphan nieces to Australia from war-torn Somalia. He is also a migrant, having left the civil unrest in Iran to find a new life in a new country.
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As Tishtar becomes consumed with Habiba�s tales of war-torn Somalia, his own childhood memories return and he reflects on the time he spent at his grandmother�s house to escape the atrocities that unravelled post the Islamic Revolution. While at his grandmother�s house he comes to know Gretel, another lost soul who has experienced a community torn apart by division. Tishtar embarks on a journey in search of peace � for Habiba, for Gretel, for himself.
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Spanning continents and centuries, Forty Nights is a tale of the ongoing effects of dispossession and dislocation � a struggle humankind has faced long into its past. Ultimately it is the story of finding home, wherever that might be.
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