Michael Gurian, a psychotherapist and best-selling author of The Wonders of Boys and The Good Son, calls this novel an example of "visionary fiction" in the same genre as Siddhartha, The Celestine Prophecy, and The Teachings of Don Juan. The story opens in Paris where Ben Brickman, an American graduate student in psychology, suddenly finds himself unnerved by a series of prophetic dreams. He is destined to meet Joseph Kader, a 65-year-old Turkish anthropologist and Sufi mystic who sees Ben as a young man with an old soul and many gifts from God. Ben answers the call to begin a spiritual adventure in Turkey.
His experiences as a Jew, a Christian, and a practitioner of Zen have already primed him for the "ten tasks of enlightenment," which unfold in a country that unites Eastern and Western philosophies. All of this is preparation for an encounter with the Magician, a figure who has some important news for all the world's millennial mystics.
Michael Gurian has taught psychology, religion, mythology, and literature at several American colleges and at Ankara University in Turkey. This fluid and enchanting work of visionary fiction opens many new doors into the interpenetrating worlds of spirituality, shamanism, dreams, consciousness, and enlightenment. It is a playground for seekers who are yearning for something completely different.