This superb book is borne of Marina Warner’s work with the project Stories in Transit, which organises storytelling workshops in the UK and in Palermo, bringing young migrant students together with artists, writers and musicians.
What is sanctuary for those who have been displaced? Why do people flee different situations and conflicts worldwide, and what would a perfect version of sanctuary for those forced out of their homes look like? How can art, which has always recorded and reflected the worst experiences of humanity, also be a salve, an escape or a route to somewhere new.
Marina Warner's study of the Arabian Nights, Stranger Magic (2011) won the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism and the Sheikh Zayed Book Award in 2013; in 2015 she was awarded the Holberg Prize in the Arts and Humanities and was made DBE. She is a Professor of English and Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, a Fellow of the British Academy and President of the Royal Society of Literature.