Ali and Nino by Kurban Said6/20/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() Throughout their story, eventually overtaking it, are the politics of the period and region. In it he tells of his & Nino’s childhood in Baku, their courtship, marriage and the birth of their child. When the book opens the Russians hold Baku, but Azerbeidshan will pass through many hands before the last page.Īli Khan narrates the novel, and we learn that the story we are reading is from his journal. Turkey and Armenia are to the East, Georgia and the Ukraine are North, Persia/Iran is to the South. Baku – the city where much of the action takes place – is on the Western tip of Azerbeidshan, directly across the Caspian Sea from Russia. ![]() Geography is an important element to understanding the plot, so a world map from the period might be worth looking up (though not necessary, the author does a pretty good job of explaining the small nation’s precarious situation). It begins on the eve of the Bolshevik revolution and ends with Azerbeidshan part of the Soviet Union. Their relationship must overcome religious differences (he is Muslim, she a Christian) and world events. Ali, a young nobleman, falls in love with a Nino, a Georgian princess. It reads as both a 19th century romance and a 20th century historical/political novel. Map drawn by Jenia Graman, the novel's translatorĪli & Nino is set in the country of Azerbeidshan ( Azerbaijan), circa 1918. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |