Lena is a 30-year-old PhD student in Viennan during the 1980s, of working class roots, addicted to dope and unsuitable men. She feels an exile in her own country, not able to find her place within the Catholic Church nor academia, nor amongst the drifters and dreamers who surround her. When she falls in love with Aziz, a Palestinian translator and Muslim, she finds to her astonishment that she feels at home in his culture. Her experience of Islam deepens during a research year in Istanbul. Ultimately Aziz and Lena are catalysts for each other to be true to themselves and choose the lives they want to lead, accepting that this means leaving the boundaries of their respective cultures and embracing the unknown yet familiar other.When the Mountains are Scattered as Dust by Fatima Martin. Published by YouWriteOn 2008. 407pp. Paperback. Book condition: Good - light creasing to edge of spine, slight mark to first page, generally a nice, bright copy, tightly bound and mostly clean throughout. No former owner inscriptions.