Ted Chiang

A Baghdad merchant, who discovers an alchemical device that can send him back in time twenty years, tries to return to an earlier time to save his dead wife.

The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate

Akanksha Chattopadhyay

The story initially hooked my interest withits Arabian Nights tone and theprospect of time travel. However, the rather bland plot, worsened by its religious motif (I detest religious literature even when written by the likes of John Donne), and the huge gaping plot holes spoilt it for me :(