Review
Comment: Reiss takes us on an intriguing search to uncover the true identity of the
author of the 1930's cult novel,
Ali and Nino - Lev Nussimbaum, a Jew who
became a Muslim prince, who became a bestselling author in Nazi Germany.
Nussimbaum's life began in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, in 1905. Baku was
once the oil capital of the world - a place 'where Islam and the Orient were
filtered through a multicultural European lens'. When the Soviet's
took over Nussimbaum and his father fled for the Persian deserts, where
Nussimbaum lived the live of a nomad and converted to Islam. In the late
1920s he had become a bestselling author in Germany using the names Essad Bey
and Kurban Said, until he was forced to flee for Italy, where he died in
1938.
So why would you be interested in reading...
Beyond the Book
The story of Lev Nussimbaum's life starts in Baku, the capital of
Azeraijan at the turn of the 20th century.
Thanks to the joys of the internet you too can travel to Baku by browsing the local English language newspaper, the Baku Sun,
which includes a guide to the city
and even what's on the TV today. Isn't the web a wonderful thing!
Ali and
Nino (1938) and
The
Girl From The Golden Horn (1939) by Said Kurban (aka Lev
Nussimbaum) are both available at Amazon. Writing as Essad Bey,
Naussimbaum is also believed to be the author of
Blood and Oil in the
Orient (1929),
Stalin, the Career of a Fanatic (1931),...
