States of Passion

Nihad Sirees, Max Weiss

• Publisher: Pushkin Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781782273479
• eBook ISBN:
  9781782273486
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literature General
• Index: Literature

A mysterious tale-within-a-tale of family secrets by the most prominent Syrian author working today The world is so strange, The strangest things are the stories you overhear. When a hapless bureaucrat finds himself stranded in the countryside during a raging storm, he seeks refuge in a grand yet isolated mansion, inhabited by only an elderly gentleman and his unwelcoming servant. The tale of family secrets he encounters while sheltering there begins with a faded photograph in yellowed newspaper, of a beautiful woman stepping off a train at Aleppo station many years ago. It transports him to Syria's golden age, to the heart of the mysterious, unconventional banat al-ishreh - the infamous women who live, dance and play music together - and into a tangled web of forbidden love. Nihad Sirees was born in Aleppo, Syria in 1950. After working as an engineer, he became an acclaimed novelist, playwright and screenwriter, but found himself under increasing surveillance and pressure from the Syrian government. In 2012, he left for Egypt and now lives and works in exile. Pushkin Press also publish The Silence and the Roar, banned in Syria, and his first novel to be published in English. He now lives in Berlin, Germany.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• The Tale of the Tale, or the Prologue, or the Preface, or Whatever Heading Novelists Typically Use to Introduce Their Novels
• On the Margin of the Story
• CHAPTER ONE: How Innocent Widad Appeared in a Photograph with the French High Commissioner
• CHAPTER TWO: How Khojah Bahira Introduced Widad to Her First Kiss
• CHAPTER THREE: How the Old Man’s Servant Ismail Plotted to Kill Me, or at Least Make Me Run Away
• CHAPTER FOUR
• CHAPTER FIVE: From the Train Station to the Roxy Cinema
• CHAPTER SIX: The Rest of the Story, as Far as I Could Piece it Together; How I Got Away from Ismail; and, Finally, The End
• About the Publisher
• Copyright