The Dark Side of Love

Schami, Rafik
Rafik Schami was born in Damascus in 1946, came to Germany in 1971 and studied chemistry in Heidelberg. Today he is the most successful German-speaking Arabic writer. His novels have been translated into 21 languages and received numerous international awards.

'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