Not too many years after the whirlwind during which fish and oranges fell from the sky, Anwar Accawi's father came home from a long absence with a strange box, a box that could talk and sing. The radio had come to Magdaluna, a village of about one hundred souls in southern Lebanon, and life would never quite be the same again.

In his fond and beautifully crafted reminiscences of his family, the rituals of life in their complete and insulated ecosystem, the characters who populate his world (the goatherd, the smithie, the madam) Anwar Accawi transports us to Magdaluna, the Tower of the Moon. With him we discover the simple things, the power of a familiar landscape, the scent of freshly pressed olive oil, the pure taste of cool water poured from an earthen jug, as well as the mysteries of such alien things as ice, telephones, and the horseless carriage.