215. Move over Romeo and Juliet.

By popular local consensus the national novel of Azerbaijan, this adventure romance novel tells the story of "X: an Asian Shia Muslim and Y: a Georgian Christian", who are the Ajerbaijani equivalent of Romeo and Juliet.

This novel carries an aura of mystery around it since its authorship has been questioned numerous times. The book was first published in German in Vienna in 1937 under the pseudonym Kurban Said. The enigmatic Kurban Said was later traced by literary historians to a Baku-born jewish author Lev Nussimbaum. It has also been alleged that the book was written by an Austrian Baroness, Elfriede von Ehrenfels ( with whom Lev Nussimbaum was romantically involved using another pseodonym Essad Bey!). In Azerbaijan this novel has been attribtued to Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli, prominent Azeri writer and public figure.

Perhaps to put to rest some of this confusion, Paul Theroux in the book's foreword calls this work a "living proof that art is indestructible and transcendent...and part of its message is that governments rise and fall, wars rage, cities are laid waste, people are displaced, and authors die...written words remain...it is of little consequence who wrote them".

Identify this little known gem.

214. Kiss and Start Telling?

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