You might already know what a nazar looks like. Maybe you have seen one and didn’t even know it. A few years back, everyone from Gigi Hadid to Kim Kardashian and Megan Markle were photographed with nazar-themed jewelry and footwear. Maybe I was late to the nazar game.

Nazar icons have traditionally been associated with Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cultures. This video features Turkish fishermen adorning their boats with Nazar talismans for protection. When I was writing this book, I happened upon a boutique that specializes in imported Turkish jewelry in downtown Palm Springs, California. They had dozens of nazar designs on bracelets, keychains, necklaces, and other items. You might’ve noticed that a nazar is the icon image for this website.

The nazar pendant in A Band Hand is on a keychain and reminds characters of two forces in their favor: 1) They aren’t alone, 2) That God will “re-build” them. The Old Testament prophet Isaiah, who lived some 1,800 years after the ancient patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, also known as Israel) expounded on the promises God had made to these patriarchs:

“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you. “Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with lapis lazuli…” (Found in Isaiah chapter 54, verse 11)

Sora Katsumi (or Katsumi Sora if you’re Japanese, where family name precedes one’s given name) is introduced a few chapters into the book as she meets the Yakuza boss, Hokusai, at a Tokyo coffee shop in the Shinagawa neighborhood. Sora is challenged with a serious heart condition, limiting her in a number of ways. She also is forced to face uncomfortable facts about her family’s past. Sora’s name, as is later revealed in the book, means “the heavens.” She loves looking at the crystal clear nighttime sky in the Sierra Nevada mountains. She also inherits her love of art from her mother, Shinobu. She talks about the Hokone Open Air Museum and a work called Babel by the artist Cildo Meireles. The book uses some fictional license to indicate that Babel is on display at the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art (MOMAT). Babel’s home at the time of this writing is actually Tate Modern in London. James makes Sora blush by comparing her to the acclaimed Japanese film star Erika Karata (altered photo seen above). With her boundless enthusisasm, even with the health challenges she has, Sora inspires James and shows him how to be much more than he thinks he is.