During the twilight years of the Ottoman empire at the end of the 19th century, as ethnic tensions flare between the groups that inhabit its vast territories, a young boy flees a massacre and finds shelter in Aleppo with a wealthy Muslim family. Like his hosts, Hanna is part of the empire’s wealthy elite. Unlike them, he’s a Christian. Almost immediately, he becomes best friends with Zakariya, the son of his protectors. Over the next 70 years, Hanna and Zakariya’s friendship will be tested by every conceivable challenge: war, flood, ethnic conflict, intolerance, extremism, famine and the tensions between their religious faiths.
Hanna and Zakariya’s youth and early manhood are spent entirely in pursuit of pleasure. They carouse in the red light district of Aleppo, have a memorable encounter with one of the city’s most notable courtesans, run away to Europe and spend time in Venice. On their return, they commission a friend, a Jewish architect, to build them a pleasure palace on the outskirts of the city. They call this the “citadel”. It’s part brothel and part casino – a kind of Ottoman Animal House where anything goes and they can drink, gamble and sleep with prostitutes. There’s even a special room set aside in which gamblers who have lost everything can kill themselves. (Luckily or not, it never appears to be used.)
