Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree (The Islam Quintet) by Tariq Ali

In the first volume of The Islam Quintet, Tariq Ali tells us the story of the aftermath of the fall of Granada by narrating a family saga of those who tried to survive after the collapse of their world. Ali is particularly deft at evoking what life must have been like for those doomed inhabitants, besieged on all sides by intolerant Christendom. Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree is quizzical as well as staggeringly honest, real history as well as fiction.