The Bird King

"Fatima, a royal concubine in the last days of Muslim Granada, and Hassan, a queer map-maker with strange powers, escape the palace together before it surrenders to Christian Castile — but an Inquisitor named Luz pursues them as they try to find their way to the fabled island of the Bird King. The Bird King is the story of a journey, but it’s also a journey into story — and faith and refuge, the family we choose and the friends we find. It’s deeply beautiful and wondrously sad, and one of the most beautifully written books I read this year."