The White Mosque

A Memoir

By: Sofia Samatar

Narrated by: Sofia Samatar

In the late nineteenth century, a group of German-speaking Mennonites traveled from Russia into Central Asia, where their charismatic leader predicted Christ would return. Over a century later, Sofia Samatar joins a tour following their path, fascinated not by the hardships of their journey, but by its aftermath: the establishment of a small Christian village in the Muslim Khanate of Khiva. Named Ak Metchet, "The White Mosque," after the Mennonites' whitewashed church, the village lasted for fifty years.

In pursuit of this curious history, Samatar discovers a variety of characters whose lives intersect around the ancient Silk Road, from a fifteenth-century astronomer-king, to an intrepid Swiss woman traveler of the 1930s, to the first Uzbek photographer, and explores such topics as Central Asian cinema, Mennonite martyrs, and Samatar's own complex upbringing as the daughter of a Swiss-Mennonite and a Somali-Muslim, raised as a Mennonite of color in America.

A secular pilgrimage to a lost village and a near-forgotten history, The White Mosque traces the porous and ever-expanding borders of identity, asking: How do we enter the stories of others? And how, out of the tissue of life, with its weird incidents, buried archives, and startling connections, does a person construct a self?

©2022 Sofia Samatar (P)2023 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Outstanding book and narration.

Fascinating story of fanatical belief, loss of faith and recovery of hope and spiritual vision.

Stunning delivery; radiant story

I couldn’t stop listening to this totally engrossing story of one woman’s modern-day odyssey to dimensionalize her identity and understand the many influences bringing to bear on her many-splendored heritage. Samatar’s delivery is perfectly paced. She dispatches the foreign words and concepts - of which there are many - with a polyglot’s skill. There were times I could literally hear the warmth in her voice burbling up to describe some moving detail. I found myself always with pen in hand, ready to transcribe the many wise and affecting things this writer has to say about belonging. I hope she keeps writing memoir alongside her wonderful works of fiction.

Immersive storytelling

A beautifully told memoir that investigates unlikely journeys, crisscrossed cultures, and the mistakes upon which lives are built. Sophia is a captivating storyteller offering rich, transporting details and tender personal storytelling.