Stories of the Sahara (Chinese: 《撒哈拉的故事》) is an autobiographical account of the life and love of the Taiwanese author Sanmao (Chinese: 三毛) (English name Echo Chan) while she was living in the Sahara Desert with her Spanish husband Jose Maria Quero y Ruiz. It was first published in book form in 1976, although some of the earlier stories were published in Taiwan's United Daily News as early as 1974. In the work, she describes her encounters and neighbourly relationships with the Sahrawis, the local indigenous peoples of Western Sahara amongst whom she and her husband lived in close proximity; her adventures in exploring the Saharan desert; and her relationship with her husband, whom she married in 1973 in Western Sahara after successfully progressing through protracted bureaucratic red-tape