Review: The Dark Side of Love by Rafik Schami, translated by Anthea Bell | Books | The Guardian

> Review: The Dark Side of Love by Rafik Schami, translated by Anthea Bell | Books | The Guardian - New Syrian novel ooks interesting: "The Dark Side of Love is a fiction that accurately (if selectively) documents Syrian social history. Its sweep reaches from 1907 to 1970, through the French occupation, the chaotic coup years, the rise of the Ba'ath and the disastrous June war. Farid and Rana swim on the great currents of 20th-century Syrian thought - communism, feminism, nationalism, Islamism - and witness the poisoning of the waters. Farid's torture scenes are painfully, brilliantly narrated. Relations between Christians, Jews and Muslims, between the countryside and the city, between men and women, and between political factions, are explored with subtlety and honesty."