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| Ali and Nino: A Love Story | 
 enlarge | Author: Kurban Said
Publisher: Anchor
Category: Book
Buy Used: £4.19
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 903564
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 0385720408
Dewey Decimal Number: 833.912
EAN: 9780385720403
ASIN: 0385720408
Publication Date: October 3, 2000
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Delivered from the UK in 5-7 days. 2000. Anchor. Paperback VG, spine ends & corners rubbed.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
A hidden gem!, July 31, 2008
An exellent book so well written it is such a shame it is still little known.
Kurban Said otherwise known as Essad Bey was an Azeri Jew who converted to Shia Islam, wrote a number of novels (and a biography of Muhammad under the name Essad Bey) lived in Russia for a time before living out the rest of his days in Central Europe. His life reflects much of the characters he wrote about and the complex world they lived in.
The novel is a love story between Ali an Azeri Shia of a noble family and Nino a Georgian christian. The story surrounds their lives growing up in the turbluant world leading up to World War 1. How their love brought them together but their cultures tore them apart.
The reason I put a brief biography of the author is that to know him is to understand how he could write with such insight into the various cultures of the Caucuses both Christian and Muslim. His insights into the Shia rituals such as Ashura, the culture of Iran and the hopeless decline of the Persian empre.
While the writer covers this so well I feel at times he does go a little overboard on the wole east Vs west and the whole emphasis on Christian Nino seeing Ali as some kind of 'romantic barbarian' is a little silly. The Georgian people are proud of their own wild rustic culture and the Persians are hardly some kind of Bedowin desert people.
Still, this book realy does capture the time so well, in a maner that other writers on that most beautiful of lands such as Tolstoy and Pushkin would be proud.
 A fascinating romance set in early 20th C Azerbaijan July 11, 2008
Azerbaijan in the early 20th century was at the crossroads of civilisations, cultures and religions. Set against this backdrop at the start of WWI is this love story of Ali, a desert loving-Muslim, and Nino, a Christian Georgian princess who yearns to be more European. Theirs is a childhood romance that eventually blossoms fully and they marry despite many obstacles put in their way. However it finally becomes clear that Ali's real love is for his country which can only lead to tragedy.
Ali and Nino is a rediscovered novel, written in the 1930s and published in Vienna, then found and translated into English in the 1950s. It gives a fascinating glimpse of what life was like amongst the ruling classes in this cultural melting pot; neighbour to Persia, but stuck between the warring Turks and Russians. With derring-do, glamour, philosophy, and romance, this novel has everything, but ultimately failed to totally grab me - maybe because of Ali's lack of ambition and liking of an easy life, until his patriotic awakening. It was a very good, but not quite brilliant read.
A unique love story from AZERBAIJAN February 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I loved this book. As a woman born in USSR in Azerbaijan (Baku) at the end of the 20th century I can relate to the sentiments and events described in the book more than most people unless they come from Baku like myself. It shows what a leap my country has made in the time since the era in which the book was written. Sadly this cannot be said about the rest of Caucasus.
I want to draw the line between Azerbaijan and Caucasus because the book describes the events which happened in Azerbaijan and not in the whole of Caucasus. There are hundreds of nationalities with their own unique traditions and history who rightly claim their own place in the world history, so the point I am making is that the book specifically relates to Azerbaijan (and to Georgia to some degree) but should not be projected to what may have been happening in the rest of the Caucasus at the time.
More than just a love story October 4, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Truly the best love story and a very modern one at that.
Although it's a love story, it's so much more than just that. Ali and Nino is also a book about the divide between East and West and Islam and Christianity and the huge cultural gulfs between the two and whether that can be bridged or not - a very modern theme. This is a subject the author is very passionate about and it gets a lot of attention in the book.
Set in the turbulent times around World War I and leading up to the Russian Revolution, Ali and Nino is a tale about the love between a Muslim boy (Ali) and a Georgian orthodox christian girl (Nino).
It starts out in Baku on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Baku is one of the world's first great oil towns but also a town founded by Zoroastrians so a very romantic setting. Then the action moves to Nagorno Karabakh - one-time mountain holiday area for people living in Baku and then moves around all over the Caucasus. The cast of characters is as diverse as the region - Russians, Azeris, Georgians and Armenians and others.
I've read it several times and loved it as much on each read as I did on the first one. (I don't normally re-read books, so that shows how well this book stands up and how well written it is.) My parents read it and loved it and everyone I've given the book to has loved it. I've yet to meet someone who didn't recognize it for the masterpiece it is.
Read it if you're interested in the Caucasus, read it if you like a good love story, or read it if you're worried about the consequences of today's conflict between east and west on human relationships.
special January 27, 2007
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I agree with the person who described this book as special. It truly is a perfectly apt description for the book. I bought this book almost 5 o 6 years ago and it still had pride of place in my collection. The love that between ali and nino and the way it is developed by the author is different to the stories I am accustomed to and perhaps this is why it has remained in my mind all of this time. I would strongly recommend it.
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