States of Passion

The world is so strange. The strangest things are the stories you overhear.

When a hapless bureaucrat finds himself stranded in the countryside during a raging storm, he seeks refuge in a grand yet isolated mansion, inhabited by only an elderly gentleman and his unwelcoming servant.

The tale of family secrets he encounters while sheltering there begins with a faded photograph in yellowed newspaper, of a beautiful woman stepping off a train at Aleppo station many years ago. It transports him to Syria's golden age, to the heart of the mysterious, unconventional banat al-ishreh - the infamous women who live, dance and play music together - and into a tangled web of forbidden love.

States of Passion is a beautifully spun, playful novel about what it means to live within a memory of the past - and about the many faces of a city that might have been.

Lumea este atat de ciudata. Cele mai ciudate lucruri sunt povestile pe care le auziti. Cand un birocrat nefericit se afla blocat in mediul rural in timpul unei furtuni furioase, el isi cauta refugiu intr-un conac grandios, dar izolat, locuit doar de un domn in varsta si de servitorul sau neprimitor. el se intalneste in timp ce se adaposteste acolo incepe cu o fotografie estompata in ziarul ingalbenit, a unei femei frumoase care cobora dintr-un tren in gara Alep acum multi ani.