wise and entertaining. so good I read it cover to cover within a couple of hours.

A great story of friendship and coming-of-age in the poorer part of a politically unstable, extremely diverse Damascus. Schami reportedly used many autobiographical bits in this novel, and the political events (the incessant coups, the communist propaganda, the censorship) are all very much the stuff of Syrian existence for many decades. The translation from German is mostly smooth, though German can be awkward to translate into English, and keeps the distinct flavor of the intended original language.

I went to an American school growing up. We had to learn English, so we were forbidden from speaking Turkish even amongst ourselves outside of class. For this, we had "the key." Whoever had the key, tried hard to pass it on to the next person before the end of the day. Whoever had the key at the end of the day, had to pay some money (I forget what happened to the money at the end of the week...) You could only pass the key if you heard someone speaking Turkish. I ended up with the key once or twice at the end of the day, and it was rather shameful to come home and ask mom for the money, as we were not that well off (I never had enough pocket money to pay this the day of). Perhaps for this reason, a few times, my best friend took the key from me, even though he spoke perfectly fluent English and never slipped, and went hunting to pass it on to someone else. None of the kids ever suspected that he would have the key, which made it easier for him to pass it on.

The diversity of Damascus that Schami portrays in the book is not an exaggeration, and reminds me of Istanbul (Constantinople, whatever you want to call it.) What a pity that years of oppressive regimes really reduce such cities to less cosmopolitan, less tolerant versions of themselves.

Recommended for those who like socks, gold coins, card games, radio plays, bakeries, and hard bargains.