Aslan, the Jewish narrator, harks back to his youth as a rich spoilt teenager – and closet homosexual living in 19th century Damascus. His relationship with a Christian monk, therefore, held all the seeds of personal disaster and incipient pogrom. Aslan's account, given in old age, is neither easy to read - he changes from 1st to 3rd person frequently - or to be trusted, so it’s up to the reader to decide just what did happen. Fascinating.
