Most Popular Books by Rafik Schami

Amid the turmoil of modern Damascus, one teenage boy finds his political voice in a message of rebellion that echoes throughout Syria and as far away as Western Europe. Inspired by his dearest friend, old Uncle Salim, he begins a journal to record his thoughts and impressions of family, friends, life at school, and his growing feelings for his girlfriend, Nadia. Soon the hidden diary becomes more than just a way to remember his daily adventures; on its pages he explores his frustration with the government injustices he witnesses. His courage and ingenuity finally find an outlet when he and his friends begin a subversive underground newspaper. Warmed by a fine sense of humor, this novel is at once a moving love story and a passionate testimony to the difficult and committed actions being taken by young people around the world.

Rafik Schami lived in Damascus for twenty-five years before going into exile and becoming a prize-winning novelist. But he never forgot Damascus, the Pearl of the Orient, the city he loves most in the world. This beautifully written journey around the city is alive with its colors and smells and tells of the yearning of exile.

A dead man hangs from the portal of St Paul 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 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.

A MASTERPIECE FROM THE BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF THE DARK SIDE OF LOVE -- A murder in Damascus, a love with the power to save a young man’s life… In his latest novel, Rafik Schami ventures to the land of his childhood, where he is now unable to safely return: Syria. As a young girl, Sophia falls deeply in love with Karim, but weds a rich goldsmith instead. A few years later, Karim is accused of an assassination he did not commit and Sophia saves his life. He promises that she will forever have his loyalty, no matter the risk to himself. Long after the incident is buried in memory, Sophia''s only son, Salman, returns to Damascus after forty years of exile in Italy; when his photo appears in the newspaper, he is forced into hiding and fears for his life. Remembering Karim’s promise, Sophia decides to call on him for help in spite of the many years that have passed, and the lost opportunity of their once-consuming passion. Set during the tumultuous years leading up to the Arab Spring, Sophia delivers the intricate plotting and lyrical prose that Schami’s readers expect, and reveals the power of love to overcome all barriers of time and circumstance.

Even as a young man, Hamid Farsi is acclaimed as a master of the art of calligraphy. But as time goes by, he sees that weaknesses in the Arabic language and its script limit its uses in the modern world. In a secret society, he works out schemes for radical reform, never guessing what risks he is running. His beautiful wife, Noura, is ignorant of the great plans on her husband’s mind. She knows only his cold, avaricious side and so it is no wonder she feels flattered by the attentions of his amusing, lively young apprentice. And so begins a passionate love story of a Muslim woman and a Christian man.

Rafik Schami''s award-winning novel. In the classical Arab tradition of tale-telling, here is a magical book that celebrates the power of storytelling, delightfully transformed for modern sensibilities by an award-winning author. The time is present-day Damascus, and Salim the coachman, the city''s most famous storyteller, is mysteriously struck dumb. To break the spell, seven friends gather for seven nights to present Salim with seven wondrous "gifts"—seven stories of their own design. Upon this enchanting frame of tales told in the fragrant Arabian night, the words of the past grow fainter, as ancient customs are yielding to modern turmoil. While the hairdresser, the teacher, the wife of the locksmith sip their tea and pass the water pipe, they swap stories about the magical and the mundane: about djinnis and princesses, about contemporary politics and the difficulties of bargaining in a New York department store. And as one tale leads to another... and another... all of Damascus appears before your eyes, along with a vision of storytelling—and talk—as the essence of friendship, of community, of life. A sly and graceful work, a delight to readers young and old, Damascus Nights is, according to Publishers Weekly, "a highly atmospheric, pungent narrative."

Once there was a farm where many pigs and many chickens lived in cordial but distant contentment. They were all very polite to each other, but no pig ever played with a chicken and no chicken ever played with a pig. Not, that is, until Albert meets Lila. Both are outcasts: Albert ridiculed because he is the only white pig on the farm and Lila exiled from the henhouse because she is too old to lay eggs. Naturally, the other animals shake their heads over this odd couple. But Albert and Lila don''t care. They''re having too much fun together. And when they come up with a cunning plan to outwit the fox, they transform the farm into a safe and happy haven filled with friendship and fun for all.

Albert, the only white pig on the farm, and Lila, a chicken too old to lay eggs, suffer the ridicule of their fellow animals until they join forces and defeat a hungry fox who comes to call. Reprint.

Fatima accepts the challenge to work for the mean-tempered lord of the castle who steals the dreams of anyone who becomes angry with him.

A teenager who wants to be a journalist in a suppressed society describes to his diary his daily life in his hometown of Damascus, Syria.

Un impresionante mosaico de Oriente Próximo, desde el fin del imperio Otomano hasta nuestros días, un panorama de enfrentamientos y revueltas, tramas secretas y dictaduras que abarca desde Siria al Líbano, pasando por la diáspora en Arabia, Europa y América. Corre la década de los sesenta en Damasco cuando el joven Farid conoce a la hermosa e inteligente Rana. La atracción mutua es irresistible, pero, para su desgracia, pertenecen a familias cristianas que se odian a muerte: los Mushtak, católicos, y los Shahin, de tradición greco-ortodoxa. Desde el primer momento, la relación entre los jóvenes se convierte en un desafío inaceptable a la ley de los clanes rivales, un amor condenado a la clandestinidad y el exilio. La suerte de los amantes a lo largo de varias décadas concita una nutrida galería de personajes difíciles de olvidar. Y como formidable marco de esta historia está Damasco, ciudad misteriosa y fascinante, que palpita en estas páginas a través de una visión íntima pero certera de una cultura marcada por las convulsiones políticas y religiosas, y de un mundo en el que el valor del individuo queda relegado ante el poder omnipresente de la familia. Reseñas: «Un fresco épico, una alfombra oriental en la que los hilos de innumerables destinos individuales se entretejen formando un diseño en el que vive el crisol de las estirpes, religiones y culturas de Oriente Próximo.» Claudio Magris «Una obra maestra. Una prosa maravillosa, en la que se entremezclan mito, fábula y una magnífica historia de amor.» Die Zeit

Un vibrante retrato de Damasco en los años posteriores a la independencia, cuyos protagonistas son un reputado calígrafo, una mujer de gran belleza y un joven cristiano de noble carácter. En las populosas calles de la ciudad vieja, el rumor se extiende como una marea: Nura, la joven y bella esposa del afamado calígrafo Hamid Farsi, se ha fugado de casa sin dejar rastro. De inmediato, cientos de voces especulan sobre los motivos de tal desplante. ¿Habrá sucumbido al insistente ruego del célebre donjuán Nassri Abbani, que para conquistar la única pieza que se le resiste ha acudido nada menos que al marido de su presa para que le escriba fogosas cartas de amor? ¿O habrá huido tal vez de la asfixiante vida conyugal a la que la sometía su esposo, seducida por el embrujo de algún joven dispuesto a compartir el amor por los libros, la libertad y el gozo de vivir? Quizá la respuesta esté en el propio Hamid, que guarda un secreto que podría ocultar la clave del misterio. En este cautivante fresco de la vida damascena a mediados del siglo pasado, Rafik Schami va delineando con gran riqueza de matices los perfiles de una serie de personajes que impregnan la retina del lector con la embelesadora vitalidad de una de las ciudades más emblemáticas de Oriente Próximo.

Singular mezcla de la vivacidad de los cuentos orientales con el rigor formal de la prosa europea, Rafik Schami nos ofrece un oportuno recordatorio de que el entendimiento y la reconciliación entre todos los seres humanos es un sueño realizable. Que la vida es un constante alejarse y regresar a aquellos años tempranos en los que la conciencia es incapaz de abarcar toda la complejidad del mundo lo corrobora la rica trayectoria literaria del escritor alemán de origen sirio Rafik Schami. Nacido en Damasco y exiliado desde hace más de cuarenta años en Alemania, donde se ha granjeado una enorme legión de fieles lectores, Schami ha sabido utilizar como pocos la fuerza evocadora de los recuerdos para plasmar con maestría los ásperos contornos del presente. Como ya hizo en El lado oscuro del amor y El secreto del calígrafo, Schami dibuja un colorido retrato de la convivencia de judíos, cristianos y musulmanes por las calles del Damasco de su juventud, recreando escenas, olores y sabores de una ciudad viva y radiante, en la que la legendaria hospitalidad del pueblo sirio contrastaba con la ciega brutalidad del sistema, que ya exhibía sus mortíferas garras. Instalado en Roma, casado con una farmacóloga italiana y padre de un niño, Salman, álter ego de Schami, regresa a su país empujado por la añoranza. Pero el emocionante reencuentro con la familia y los amigos, y los paseos por los barrios de su infancia, por los zocos y los cafés de su juventud, enmascaran una realidad amenazante. Los acontecimientos se precipitarán y el azaroso encuentro de Salman con el septuagenario Karim, antiguo gran amor de Sofía, su madre, le dejará una lección inolvidable para el resto de sus días. La crítica ha dicho... «Las aventuras de Salman en sus diversos escondites componen una magnífica obra de espionaje político que representa una profunda visión de la sociedad siria y de las causas de la sangrienta carnicería que devasta hoy el país.» Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung «Rafik Schami, quien no sólo cuenta historias que parecen sacadas de Las mil y una noches sino también sobre clanes patriarcales, intrigantes servicios secretos y familias desgarradas, es como una Sherezade en el exilio.» Zeit Online «En Sofía o El origen de todas las historias, Rafik Schami habla de la añoranza que siente un expatriado por su país natal y revela con ello los paralelismos con su propia vida.» Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger «Un libro sobre las mujeres, sobre la fuerza de los sentimientos, sobre el amor en la vejez. [...] Reúne todas las cualidades de un buen relato: amor, drama, tensión, poesía, tragedia...» Deutschlandradio Kultur «Rafik Schami es uno de los autores en lengua alemana de mayor éxito en la actualidad.» Deutschlandfunk

Geschichten mit dem Zauber des Orients, voller Witz und Weisheit. Aus Malula, dem Heimatort von Rafik Schamis Familie, stammt diese Sammlung von Geschichten, die durch Zufall wiederentdeckt wurde.

Una storia d''amore proibita e struggente, quella tra il giovane Farid e la bella e sensuale Rana. La saga di due famiglie, quella dei Mushtak e quella dei Shanin, divise dalla legge dei clan e da una faida sanguinosa. Un affresco storico che ripercorre le tormentate vicende del Medio Oriente, dalla fine dell''impero ottomano ai giorni nostri, tra guerre e rivolte, trame segrete e feroci dittature. La biografia di un popolo, quello siriano, incessantemente tormentato. Il ritratto di una città misteriosa e affascinante, Damasco, che rivive in queste pagine con precisione e tenerezza. È difficile che un romanzo sappia essere insieme tutte queste cose, ed è un vero miracolo quando riesce a farlo ammaliando il lettore dalla prima all''ultima pagina, in un viaggio che ci fa scoprire un intero mondo e mille personaggi indimenticabili, con la loro violenza e la loro follia, ma anche i loro ideali e la loro generosità. Ripercorrendo le vicende di tre generazioni, Schami ha scritto un romanzo di travolgente forza narrativa, che affronta gli aspetti più oscuri della storia del suo paese e al tempo stesso è un toccante inno alla forza dell''amore.

Diary entries set against the background of political unrest in the Middle east, in which a fourteen year old describes three years of his life in Damascus where work, school, romance and friendship mingle together with threats of war and constant coups.; Translated from the German by Rika Lesser.