Tom Reiss Books

The Orientalist unravels the mysterious life of a man born on the border between West and East, a Jewish man with a passion for the Arab world. Tom Reiss first came across the man who called himself 'Kurban Said' when he went to the ex-USSR to research the oil business on the Caspian Sea, and discovered a novel instead. Written on the eve of the Second World War, Ali and Nino is a captivating love story set in the glamorous city of Baku, Azerbaijan's capital. The novel's depiction of a lost cosmopolitan society is enthralling, but equally intriguing is the identity of the man who wrote it. Who was its supposed author? And why was he so forgotten that no one could agree on the simplest facts about him? For five years, Reiss tracked Lev Nussimbaum, alias Kurban Said, from a wealthy Jewish childhood in Baku, to a romantic adolescence in Persia on the run from the Bolsheviks, and an exile in Berlin as bestselling author and self-proclaimed Muslim prince. The result is a thoroughly unexpected picture of the twentieth-century - of the origins of our ideas about race and religious self-definition, and of the roots of modern fanaticism.

This biography traces the almost unbelievable life of the man who inspired not only Monte Cristo, but all three of the Musketeers: the novelist's own father.

First published in Vienna in 1937, this classic story of romance and adventure has drawn comparisons to Dr. Zhivago and Romeo and Juliet. The mysterious author has recently gained attention, inspiring a forthcoming biography. After being out of print for nearly three decades, the novel was re-released last year. It is a captivating work, rich in the exotic desert landscape and the intense passion between two lovers separated by culture, religion, and war. Set on the eve of World War I in Baku, Azerbaijan, a city straddling east and west, the story follows Ali Khan Shirvanshir, a Muslim schoolboy from an aristocratic family, who falls in love with the beautiful Nino Kipiani, a Christian girl with European sensibilities. To be together, they must navigate blood feuds and scandal, embark on a daring horseback rescue, and journey through the striking deserts and remote mountain villages to Ali's uncle's opulent palace in Persia. Ultimately, they return to Baku, but as war looms, Ali faces a choice between his loyalty to his ancestral beliefs and his deep love for Nino. Combining the allure of a Scheherazade tale with epic grandeur, this novel is a timeless exploration of love amid conflict.