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Between Love and Honor

Name: Between Love and Honor
Author: Alexandra Lapierre
ISBN: 9781469200163

by Alexandra Lapierre, Nick Podehl (Read by)

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Overview

Between Love and Honor is a historical love story based on the facts of Czar Nicholas I of Russia’s 25-year struggle to contain the Muslims of the Caucasus Mountains. The book follows Jamal Eddin, son of the Jihadist warrior Imam Shamil, as he’s taken hostage by the Czar. The boy so impressed the Czar that he was raised alongside the Czar’s sons. He was encouraged to practice his religion — part of a plot by the Czar to place the boy as ruler in his father’s stead, bringing the interests of Russia to power — and he managed to incorporate Islam into courtly life among the glamorous Imperial set. All this changed, however, when he fell in love; the girl was from one of the most celebrated intellectual families in the Empire, and Jamal Eddin could have her hand only if he agreed to convert to Christianity. Deeply in love, he would willingly commit this act of apostasy. Despite the plans the Czar had for his protégé, Nicholas also agreed to the match; indeed, he promised to stand as godfather at Jamal Eddin’s baptism and best man at his wedding. Upon this news, 17 years after his kidnapping, Jamal’s father makes his move, but leaves the choice to his son: will he return to his village or remain with his love?

About the Author, Alexandra Lapierre

Lapierre is French by birth but fluent in English; she did her graduate degree in film at UCLA, and lived for many years in the U.S. She is the author of many international bestsellers, two of which have been published in the US: Artemesia, the biography of the only celebrated woman painter of the Renaissance, (Grove Atlantic, 2000) and Fanny Stevenson (Carroll and Graf, 1995). She is a consummate and dynamic promoter, passionate, erudite and charming. Touring for Artemisia she captivated audiences at the Metropolitan Museum, the Getty Museum, the Fogg and many others.