by Cass Dalglish (Author)
Something very strange is happening to the ring of stone lions at the center of the Alhambra, lions that have refused to spit water for five hundred years, until suddenly one of the lions is gushing every evening. Ring of Lions explores the power of memory as mysteries around the last Moorish kings of Spain become entangled with a series of recent deaths at the Alhambra, the castle of the last Emir of Granada. The novel leads readers across timelines and through folktales as the story is told by characters of several generations whose cultural, religious and academic motives have drawn them to the Alhambra. In the shadow of the novel lives a fable about animals, a tale adapted from the "Story of the Ring Dove," a text that plays a significant role in the philosophy of the Muslim Neoplatonist Ikhwān al-Ṣafā' in medieval Spain.