“The author will lead you through an abbara in Mardin thousands of which connect streets, neighbourhoods and houses, darkness to light, sorrow to joy and from the visible to the unknown. You’ll pass through it for one has to pass through himself to find himself. While Joseph discovers his real mother in the triangle of Houston, Matera and Mardin, you’ll journey through ages meeting queen snakes sailing through the skies, ancient prophets telling you their parables, and a living wizard who is going to discover the lost water streams under your feet. Of all there three towns Mardin is the protagonist in this novel, if you can call it that. One of the main theoretical trends in literary criticism might easily call it a diary, a travelogue or a historical treatise. No, it is not a historical novel or detective fiction. Is it fiction despite all those living souls are parading in front of your eyes? Yet you need to travel to Madera and Houston to find out how a modern chimaera with two sets of DNA did to Joseph. An Aaron of this age will tell you that “Each person is a hero in their own story. Each person has their own name within that story.” You need your abbara to make your passage from sorrow to joy and from the visible to the unknown. Start here and you’ll be looking for it all over the place – on the hills, in the caves and the monasteries, in the tombs – until we found them. Start here in Mardin.” – Dr. Hakki Ocal