MAIN IDEA OF NOVEL

The author has built her story around the little that is known about Rumi’s life. She had treated the historical Kimya with a sensitivity that others might have ignored. The main theme in the novel is first of all the Sufi theme of love and separation. Nothing is really known about Kimya's origins, and we know very little about her life in Rumi's household. Yet through enchanting depiction, Maufroy lovingly evokes the spirit of a cheerful and ingenuous young girl. She brings to life this child of seven in all her innocence and simplicity as the girl awakens to a world of wonder and embraces the life of a mystic, even before she meets Rumi and Shams.

Kimya’s spiritual awakening is paced with sensitivity and tenderness and beautifully described, and comes close to what one imagines the experience of Sufi (or indeed any other) mysticism might be like. Rumi and Shams (and somehow Shams seems by far the more important of the two), are depicted as figures on a higher level of both humanity and spirituality than the other characters. The novel does not only describes historic events f Rumi’s era and experiences of young Kimya but also gives an account to Sufi thought and knowledge as

"God's knowledge is as free as a bird and so is your soul."

"There is a knowledge the mind knows nothing of".

Such statements subtly draw the reader into the Sufi mystic's world and its language. As author writes “When Kimya left the sky was softening into a rose-tinted gold, as tender as God's whisper". It is this whisper from God that this novel manages to make us hear.