Written on the eve of the Second World War, this work is a love story set in the glamorous city of Baku, Azerbaijan's capital. It presents a picture of the twentieth-century - of the origins of our ideas about race and religious self-definition, and of the roots of modern fanaticism.

Written on the eve of the Second World War, this work is a love story set in the glamorous city of Baku, Azerbaijan's capital. It presents a picture of the twentieth-century - of the origins of our ideas about race and religious self-definition, and of the roots of modern fanaticism.