I left Yemen with the same feeling you have when parting from loved ones. Yemen no longer composes that enchanting and mysterious unknown, which for so long had troubled me and which I wanted so desperately to know.

It now constitutes a lived, tantalizing experience, flooded with beauty and knowledge. It appears within me as a fairytale entity with a coarse and robust character, mixed with tenderness and sensuality, pride and grace.

(. . .)

[Excerpt from a publisher's presentation text or edition]