The Dark Side of Love: a new novelThey say that The Dark Side of Love has all the crucial elements that comprise a grand romantic tale: love, passion, betrayal, jealousy, murder, vengeance, pride, humor, hatred, and in this case, honor killings--but is this more Anna Karenina or Harlequin romance? Well, some say that forbidden love is the most romantic kind of love. In this story, forbidden love unfolds in 20th century Syria where, even today, multigenerational feuds between clans prevent society from progressing.

The story begins in the portal of St. Paul's Chapel in Damascus where a murdered Muslim officer is hanging. Detective Barudi heads out to question the officer's mysterious widow, only for the Secret Service to take the case away from him. Barudi continues to inspect in secret and discovers that the murder's motive is due to a blood feud between the Mushtak and Shahin clans that took place earlier in the century. And connected to it is a love story that cannot possibly end happily in a setting where reconciliation does not exist within tribalism.

Author Rafik Schami was born Suheil Fadel in Damascus in 1946. He immigrated to Germany in 1971. It is not clear at what point and why he changed his name from one Arabic name to another. Schami hails from a modest background; his father was a baker from a Christian family. The author originally studied chemistry while still living in Damascus and moved to Germany to obtain a doctorate degree. In Germany, Schami labored at various jobs to finance his education. He later became a full-time author in 1982 and co-founded literary groups to help promote the work of non-native German authors. Schami writes in German, and although he is extremely well-known in Germany and throughout Europe, his work is little known in the United States.

Rafik ShamiUnlike other non-native German authors, Schami's work does not attack German xenophobia or reveal the obstacles faced by foreign workers in Germany. Instead he seeks to elicit sympathy and appreciation from his readers for cultural diversity. His stories describe daily life in the Arab world, yielding factual information and providing insight into the facets of quotidian life. This softly eliminates all types of prejudice the reader may have once carried. According to the Encyclopedia of German Literature, Schami's portrayals of life in Syria and the Arab world are realistic; he criticizes Damascene politics, corruption, censorship, and issues of civil and human rights. These problems are the reason Schami had to leave Syria and render him unable to return.

Some critics, including one writing for the Neue Züricher Zeitung, succeed in seeing past prejudice and orientalization, calling The Dark Side of Love "[a] cascade of stories, which again and again inflame themselves... An Arab variation of Romeo and Juliet with a happy ending... A wonderfully easy read... A modern Arab genre tableau... an immense declaration of love to Damascus with its East-West tensions..." Meanwhile, other critics completely miss the point and comment on "The strangeness of the Arab world..." Perhaps the reviewer from Süddeutsche Zeitung should try reading a different Schami book.

—Catherine Batruni