is a poetic novel or novella written by Kahlil Gibran first published in 1912 by the printing house of the periodical Meraat-ul-Gharb in New York. It is a tale of tragic love, set at the turn of the 20th century in Beirut . A young woman, Selma Karamy, is betrothed to a prominent religious man's nephew. The protagonist (a young man that Gibran perhaps modeled after himself) falls in love with this woman. They begin to meet in secret, however they are discovered, and Selma is forbidden to leave her house, breaking their hopes and hearts.