What is the best-known book set in Azerbaijan?

[nwhyte]

See note on methodologyThere is no competition here. Azerbaijan is at the edge of Europe, and there is one great (and fairly short) novel set there (with excusions to Dagestan and Iran) before, during and after the first world war, chronicling the love of an Azeri boy for a Georgian girl, and how it all concludes in British betrayal. (Be honest,

Comments

[resonant]

What countries are you exploring next?

[nwhyte]

I'm doing them in descending order of population. So the next six will be Belarus, Austria, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Serbia and Denmark. Some of these are more obvious than others - a couple of them were books that I knew, but really surprised me!

Azerbaijan

[ext_2421928]

I read Ali and Nino and The Orientalist - loved the novel and was intrigued and convinced by the Orientalist that Kurban Said was Lev Nussbaum and was the author of the novel UNTIL I talked to Christopher Hampton, the director and script writer. He would like to make Ali & Nino into a film, and had scouted out locations in Georgia during the time when he was serving on the jury of one of the Georgian International Film Festivals. He does not think Lev Nussbaum/Kurban Said was the author of the novel - he leans toward authorship by an Azeri. Hampton got more interest and support promised from the Azeris for filming so he will probably do it in that country once he gets a thorny rights issue straightened out. I will tell you more next time I see you, if you are interested.

Sandy

Re: Azerbaijan

[nwhyte]

Thanks! I know that the Azeris have a preferred candidate, and perhaps the Nussimbaum story is too good to be true...

It's a book that is crying out to be filmed, preferably as close to the original locations as possible!