Goodreads asked Ian Thomas Shaw:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Ian Thomas Shaw I lived for several years in the Middle East as a diplomat, aid worker and student. I have found that the readers in the West are usually baffled by the complexity of the issues in the region and that many writers in the region are often too polarized along political lines to write fiction that furthers the readers' understanding. Quill of the Dove is an attempt to address the complexity of the Middle East in an accessible way to Western readers and without falling into harmful stereotyping.

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