Description
The novel tells the story of a love between a Muslim man and a Christian woman that is forbidden by their respective religions. The love is doomed from the start, as the man is murdered and the woman is forced to marry his brother in order to protect her. The novel spans over a century of Syrian history, telling the stories of various characters who are connected to the love story in some way.
A dead man hangs from the portal of St Paul's Chapel in Damascus. He was a Muslim officer - and he was murdered. But when Detective Barudi sets out to interrogate the man's mysterious widow, the Secret Service takes the case away from him. Barudi continues to investigate clandestinely and discovers the murderer's motive: it is a blood feud between the Mushtak and Shahin clans, reaching back to the beginnings of the 20th century. And, linked to it, a love story that can have no happy ending, for reconciliation has no place within the old tribal structures. Rafik Schami's dazzling novel spans a century of Syrian history in which politics and religions continue to torment an entire people. Simultaneously, his poetic stories from three generations tell of the courage of lovers who risk death sooner than deny their passions. He has also written a heartfelt tribute to his hometown Damascus and a great and moving hymn to the power of love.
Review:
'A masterpiece! A marvel of prose that mixes myths, stories, tales, legends, and a wonderful love story... You will experience a Scheherazade in sparkling colours - a big love story, which does not spare us the sharp knives of grief.' Die Zeit 'At last, the Great Arab Novel - appearing without ifs, buts,equivocations, metaphorical camouflage or hidden meanings... Despite its length, the book is a compulsive read. We experience a long-awaited revelation of a society too long presented as a set of gruelling orexotic stereotypes. And the mythic elements endure, in the grist of many twisting tales. The continuing roll-call of revenge for old slights is exemplified by a piece of dialogue in which two brothers toast their success in avenging their father's death after 15 years,and one notes: 'A Bedouin would say: well done, lads, but why in such a hurry?' -- Simon Louvish The Independent 20090731 'There are no faux-magical pyrotechnics in the telling, but richly detailed characters working through real situations, characters whose inherited wounds the reader comes to care deeply about. Each is vividly drawn,with quiet and acute intelligence.' -- Robin Yassin-Kassab The Guardian 20090519 'With its feuds, lovers, murders, villains and assorted heroes and heroines, this is a novel to enjoy and to ponder.' -- Claire Hopley The Washington Times 20090511 'In 1962, Rafik Schami witnessed the so-called honour killing of aSyrian Muslim woman who had fallen in love with a Christian. The finalchapter of his novel The Dark Side of Love, originally published inGerman in 2004 but only recently translated into English, amounts to apostscript in which Schami describes how the trauma of this eventinspired him to write a novel on the myriad varieties of forbiddenlove in the Arab world. He spent decades grappling with the subject,writing dozens of books in the meantime, unable to find the appropriateapproach. Finally, he decided: Mosaic is the form for a story likethis, I thought, a story with a thousand and one pieces in it, doingjustice to life in Arabia with all its flaws. And like a mosaic, thefurther from the observer the picture appears, the smoother and moreharmonious it will be. -- MA Orthofer The National 20091015 'TheDark Side of Love is full-to-bursting with different varieties ofpassion: between the young and the old, those in first and second and third youths, married people and prostitutes. But the reader is alwaysclear on the book's two ultimate possibilities: Either our favoritelovers, Rana and Farid, will flee their homeland and make a lifetogether, or they will fail.' -- M. Lynx Qualey Sycamore Review 20091010 The sights, sounds, tastes, and fell of Damascus are imported into English in a new translation coming out of Germany. Schami's long epic romance, translated into English by well-known translator Bell, is a mythical love story at its heart. Imagine a dead man's body hanging from the portal of St. Paul's Chapel in Damascus. The scene draws in a host of characters, the most enigmatic being Detective Barudi, who implicates the dead man's widow. Taking it up one notch, the Secret Service m
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