Jordi Esteva will be talking with Nuria Medina, Casa Árabe’s Culture Coordinator, about his book “Socotra: Island of the Djinns,” undeniably a classic work of travel literature. Through its pages, the author takes us on a journey to this island lost in the Indian Ocean, nearly four hundred kilometers off the coasts of Arabia. As the Atalanta publishing house says in the introduction to this work, it is “a mythical place which has preserved its primordial flora and fauna, through which Indians, Greeks and Arabs from the South have passed for centuries, lured in by the coveted properties of the fragrant resins from incense trees, myrrh and the substance known as blood of the dragon. Marco Polo wrote that its dwellers included wizards and workers of black magic, and that seafarers claimed the island was home to the bird Roc, mentioned in the second journey by Sindbad.”

“Socotra: The Island of the Djinns” is one of the summer reading recommendations made by Casa Árabe. This year more than ever, it feels essential to us to bring back travel literature, because it allows us to go on journeys to distant places and overcome the insurmountable barriers keeping us from travelling across the world right now. You can purchase the book with a discount at Casa Árabe’s Balqís bookstore.

Moreover, next September, Casa Árabe will be officially opening, as part of the PHotoESPAÑA Festival, Jordi Esteva’s exhibition “Arcadia Arábiga” (“Arabian Arcadia”), in which we will be displaying some of his photo series taken in the oases of Egypt and on the island of Socotra (Yemen).