"[M]y auntie, Tití, who was the reader in the family, gave me a picture book version of “The Arabian Nights,” and I was smitten. Scheherazade, the young heroine, was a girl who looked Dominican, dark eyed, dark hair, olive skin. Then, the whole idea of a girl saving her life and that of all women in the kingdom and transforming a cruel sultan by telling stories. That book put a luminous bit of information in my head: that stories have power, that they can transform you and save you."
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Original Language: English
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Sources
Julia Alvarez, Interview, "By the Book: Julia Alvarez", The New York Times (11 April 2019)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/One_Thousand_and_One_Nights
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One Thousand and One Nights
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