
Isabelle
A Story in Shorts
Arcadia Books (Publisher)
Published on 4. August 1998
Book
Paperback/Softback
90 pages
978-1-900850-07-0 (ISBN)
Description
In 1897, Isabelle, aged twenty, left Geneva for Kenadsa, at the Moroccan frontier. Gripped by spiritual restlessness and a desire to transcend the artificial constraints of society, she journeyed into the Sahara, into the heart of Islam. There she revelled in the languorous warmth of the nights and the sensuous beauty of the people. Dressed as an Arab youth, she smoked kif, took innumerable lovers, and made dangerous trips alone across the desert. She married Sliman, a French army sergeant, and became a mystic healer. Her freak death in a flash flood ended a brief life of disturbing contradictions, for Isabelle was a European turned Arab, a Christian who became a Sufi, a woman who passed for a man.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Ill.
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 6 mm
Weight
159 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-900850-07-0 (9781900850070)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Nella Bielski was born in Russia just before World War II. She is part of that generation who was evacuated to the Urals during the German attack and had just reached adolescence when Stalin died. She was one of the few women to study at the Moscow Philosophy Faculty.Bielski's prize-winning fiction includes After Arkadia (Viking). Together with John Berger, she has written two plays, A Question of Geography and Goya's Last Portrait as well as Isabelle: A Story in Shots. She lives in Paris.