Winner of a BGTW Members’ Excellence Award: Travel Narrative Book of the Year – The Adele Evans Award. There are plenty of humorous cultural references as well: Pokemon Go, The Gilmore Girls, Game of Thrones … but my personal favourite was the hat tip to Castle Greyskull (really showing his age there). Tharik has the reader captivated as he travels from place-to-place reinvigorating the beautiful Islamic heritage. A journey around Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans, home to the largest indigenous Muslim population in Europe, following the footsteps of Evliya Celebi through Serbia, Bosnia, Albania, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro.

Even if you haven't been to any of these countries, just googling up the images from the places he visited and reading his description of his exploration of these long-forgotten towns and suburbs are enough to give you an idea of the current state of the countries and its citizens.Tharik revitalises the existence of these monuments with his mastery writing - ladened with sincerety, warmth and real connection.

On a fundamental level, the book achieves the goal of any travel narrative: it made me want to dust off my backpack and head to the various places Tharik encountered on his journey. It records the journey that brother Tharik undertook with his beloved family through Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro. Visiting Albania myself and be in the same places including NP restaurant I can say Country is more fascinating that one written in his book. His account of the survivors of Bosnia and Herzegovina's massacre and its impact on the country and the surrounding countries are affecting and made even more powerful with all the historical background he included for context in this book.All too often we're led to believe that Europe has only Judeo-Christian heritage, maybe with a sprinkling of some paganism, and apparently Islam has had nothing to do with the evolution and development of Europe,” says Tharik. Tharik’s previous work has often served to decolonise popular religious and cultural histories and narratives. Between him and his wife, they planned a route taking guidance from the route that the Ottoman traveller Evliya Celebi took across the Ottoman Empire in the 1600s.