The Storyteller of Damascus

An authentic taste of the old Damascene tradition of storytelling that will inspire children’s imagination. An old storyteller roams through the old quarter of Damascus. For only one piaster, he offers to show the children the wonders of the world. The children look through the peepholes of his magic box, which he carries on his back from one neighborhood to the next. There they see and hear the love story of Sami, the shepherd boy, and the beautiful Leyla. But over time, the story changes… pictures inside the wonder box become old and start to fade away, replaced by cutouts from recent advertisements. A stunningly-illustrated children’s book filled with love, intrigue, courage, loyalty, and the sounds and smells of old Damascus.

Rafik Schami was born in Damascus in 1946, went to Germany in 1971 to study, and stayed on to become a leading German novelist and a pivotal figure in the European migrant literature movement. His novels have been translated into 22 languages and have received numerous international literary awards including the Hermann Hesse Prize. His translated works published by Interlink include Damascus Nights, The Calligrapher’s Secret, A Hand Full of Stars, Sophia, and The Dark Side of Love, which received a starred review in Publishers Weekly and was a 2010 Winner of the Independent Publisher Book Award Gold Medal.