It is said that when a man has lived seven years in Damascus, Damascus lives in him. Damascus was Rafik Schami's home for 25 years before he went into exile, and he never forgot it. This 'Pearl of the Orient' is still the city he loves more than any other. Thirty years later, and now a prize-winning novelist, Schami leapt at the chance to write about his former home town. There were, however, two seemingly insurmountable barriers - time and geography. So Schami's sister Marie wandered through Damascus for a year on his behalf, relaying curiosities, sounds, personalities, tastes and the smells of the Old City, while Schami wrote them down, relishing the diverse mark left on Damascene cuisine by its multifarious history.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
Done with aplomb, it has both logic and charm ... will no doubt delight foodies' The Spectator 'It is said that 'when a man has lived seven years in Damascus, Damascus lives in him'. Novelist Rafik Schami grew up in the city and lived there for 25 years, but is now exiled in Germany, a fact that gives this heartfelt guide to Damascus and its food an added poignancy. Indeed, he couldn't see how the book would be written, until his sister, Marie Fadel (who still lives in the city), suggested that she would be his eyes and ears. For a year she wandered the city describing what she saw on the telephone while he listened, 'almost torn apart by longing'. The result of this unusual collaboration is a wonderfully evocative account of the old city, the people who live there and the recipes they love, such as kibbeh (a 'noble dish' of burghul wheat and beef) and wara einab (vine leaves stuffed with meat) - 'the pinnacle of elegance in oriental cuisine'. Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, and as Schami says, 'Damascene cooking is a living witness and delicious memorial' to the rich mix of cultures and peoples who have lived there for millenia. Urban history has never been so mouth-watering.' -- P.D. Smith The Guardian
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
The Armchair Traveller at the Bookhaus
Produkt-Hinweis
Illustrationen
1 black & white halftones
Maße
Höhe: 168 mm
Breite: 125 mm
Dicke: 36 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-904950-30-1 (9781904950301)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Rafik Schami was born in the Syrian capital Damascus in 1946, where he founded a newspaper Al-Muntalek displayed on the walls of the old city. In 1971 he emigrated to Germany, where he worked in factories and restaurants while studying chemistry and writing for newspapers and journals. Eight years later he graduated with a Ph.D. and then in 1980 founded the literary group 'Sudwind' (South wind) and a multi-cultural organisation called 'PoLiKunst-Verein'. He received several literary prizes including the Hermann-Hesse-Preis and the Prix de Lecture. His latest novel Die dunkle Seite der Liebe (The Dark Side of Love) was published by Hanser in 2004. Rafik Schami has written this book with the culinary help of his sister Marie Fadel.
