Damascus Nights

This book celebrates the classical Arab tradition of oral storytelling while adding a few twists characteristic of the modern western literature. While I am not a big fan of magic tales of old, some matter-of-fact remarks and observations pertinent to the present day are the gems worth finding. Among the stories recounted by the characters I found the ones told by Musa the barber and by Fatma the locksmith's wife most interesting. Musa's story focuses on the corruptive influence of power while Fatma tells of an independent woman choosing her own path in a traditional Muslim society.

There's a calm beauty to this novel of stories, storytelling, and fabulism; even in moments of shock or violence, Schami's style pushes the novel and its many stories in such a way that there's an almost calming effect, as if one has been transported back in time to sit in a living room and rest for a spell with some wonderful storytellers.

I'm not sure how I stumbled upon this book, but I'm so glad I did. I'd absolutely recommend it.

A clever riff on the Thousand and One Nights but just not particularly good. A coachman noted for his storytelling loses his voice. His best friends try to help him recover it and finally hit upon the solution of each one telling a story which, for reasons explained in the story, is the proper solution. The first half of the book is devoted to setting the scene and the second half, to the friends’ stories. Some are silly, a few are good, but on balance the work—though well-written and evocative—is less than the sum of its parts. An easy, quick read but disappointing. I have another of his books (The Calligrapher’s Secret) which I will probably try at some point since Schami’s writing is engaging, but I’m not expecting too much.

A charming piece about story-telling and friendship. You can see the author writes children's literature, in how gentle but instructive his writing is.

Kutscher Salim ist der beste Geschichtenerzähler von Damaskus und “seine Stimme verzaubert jeden. Sie brachte nicht nur Trauer, Zorn und Freude hervor, es wurden sogar Wind, Sonne und Regen für uns spürbar.” Doch seltsam, plötzlich verstummt er. Nur sieben besondere Gaben können ihn erlösen. Seine Freunde, die ihn Abend für Abend besuchen, finden allmählich heraus, welche Gaben gemeint sein könnten – die schönsten, die es gibt: Geschichten.

This book delivers the flavor of Arab story-telling. It's a series of separate stories woven into an overall frame, and you keep turning the pages to find out what happens next: tales within tales, gross humor, love stories -- you never want them to end. A superb example in English of story-telling as a folk art.

Beautiful book. Rafik Schami demonstrates, how great story teller he is.