Ali and Nino

by Kurban Said

An Azerbaijani prince and a Georgian princess. The world ends around them.

For you if

you want to understand the Caucasus through a love story set at the moment the old world ended

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Baku, 1914. Ali Khan Shirvanshir is an Azerbaijani Muslim aristocrat in love with Nino Kipiani, a Georgian Christian princess. Their love story unfolds against the collapse of the Russian Empire, WWI, the brief independence of the Caucasian republics, and the Bolshevik conquest. Kurban Said is a pseudonym — the actual author's identity is disputed, possibly an Austrian Jewish woman writing about a culture she knew intimately. The novel is the most beautiful dispatch from inside the Caucasus as a place where Europe and Asia meet and cannot decide which they are. One of the great love stories of the 20th century and one of the least read.

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