Ali And Nino: A Love Story Paperback – 5 Oct. 2000

Join the select cult and relish this book. I chose it for our book group; and it got a very high rating from almost everyone. One thing I like is that it has no pretensions, in terms of plot or character. It is dead easy to read. The richness of the background (Azerbaijan; Persia; Georgia; and the backdrop of the ever-widening WW1) is, however, matched by the vividness of the characters. Beyond the book, so to speak, is the fascinating back-story. Don`t read too much, I would advise, about that back-story, until you have finished "Ali & Nino"; in fact, don`t read the blurb or the biog inside the front cover first......just go straight into the text; and come back to the story behind the book later. Then you can buy or borrow "The Orientalist" and find a whole, wider world of mystery and intrigue. "Ali and Nino" is terrific !

This book is set in Baku, Azerbaijan, shortly before and during the First World War. Ali is a Moslem with a distiguished family history and proud of his culture. Nino is an upper class Georgian Christian who strongly identifies with Europe. They have been childhood sweethearts and plan to marry despite their cultural and religious differences. When war breaks out in Europe, Ali first dismisses it as a fight between unbelievers, but as it gradually encroaches on the region, Ali and Nina's lives get swept up in the war.This is a very vivid, enjoyable, and well-written book in which the many different places are brought to life by the author's eye for detail. According to the helpful introduction written by Paul Theroux, the author's name, Kurbain Said, is a pseudonym, and it's thought that the book was written by a European Jew who converted to Islam while living in the area. The fact that the book was written by an immigrant is reflected in the amount of detail in the descriptions (a native person probably wouldn't have made so much effort to explain everything). Because of the author's desire to capture as many aspects of life in the region as possible, harems, kidnappings of brides, the different ethnic groups, mountain villages, dervishes, etc., the love story itself suffers a bit and the book rather jumps from place to place. Parts of the story describing the relationship between the couple are moving, such as the struggles Nino had in coping with the suffocating life of a harem, but this is primarily an ethnography capturing life in the Caucasus region a hundred years ago with the love story used as a vehicle to allow the author to do this.

An amazing book that I wanted to read because I'm going to Georgia this summer. It's full of history, culture, food and of course, the love story of Ali and Nino. I enjoyed it very much.

Set in WW1 era Azerbaijan, this is the extremely interesting story of (narrator) Ali, a Muslim, and his love-marriage with a beautiful Christian girl.From the very first page, the theme of this book - the duality of Azerbaijan in both location and cultural evolution (is it Europe or Asia?) - is brought to the fore. And the differences in outlook between the two protagonists emphasize the total dissimilarity of cultures.Nino is a privileged, educated young woman, yet when staying with her Muslim in-laws is expected to remain hidden away in the harem - well-bred friends wouldn't dream of even asking about Ali's wife, Meanwhile Ali chafes at her decorating the house in western style as he realises increasingly that he is a true Muslim and a son of Baku, ready to become involved in fighting for her independence, as Russia, Turkey and England have armies out there...There were some lovely descriptions of a remot part of the world, and I learned a lot about the lifestyle and the politics, yet I didn't really care about the characters and didn't hugely enjoy it.

Awonderful story and so full of information, historically and otherwise, I read it twice and took it with me on our visit to Azerbaijan

The book is in really good condition in a cheaper price.

The Caucasus represents well the diversity of humanity, where 'Occident' and 'Orient', or 'Islam' and ' Christianity' , meet, collide and interact. What better way to represent this dynamic shifting of cultures than in the Microcosm that is these two lovers - Ali and Nino.The story is a tender love story with a rich Caucasian background of shifting scenery, lively bazaars and set against the backdrop of Bolshevik conquest.The similarities and differences of Christian and Islamic Cultures are explored through the narrative, though never deeply analysed or developed into Philosophical analysis. It is predominantly a love story.Ali is represented as a fairly austere and slightly backward( but noble) Muslim, Nino as a tender and sophisticated Christian. These are fairly coarse generalisations, but not out of keeping with the Russian influenced view of the times of the Islamic world, and not out of keeping today with the Western view of these societies today. All in all a charming book to be read as a novel, but not a serious analysis of Chrislamic interaction.

Lovely book