Death of a Monk: Retelling the Damascus Affair

Host Marcela Sulak reads from the novel Death of a Monk by Israeli novelist and playwright Alon Hilu. It's an innovative retelling of the 1840 Damascus Affair, a blood libel against the Jewish community of Damascus, from the perspective of Aslan Farhi, a young Damascene Jew who ends up being at the center of the blood libel accusations.

"My happy friend, while I impart the these words to you, and as you record them with your industrious fingers and with expression in your large brown eyes, I would ask your indulgence in reviving for a few moments the former, innocent image of Aslan, the image of a hollow-cheeked youth, whose days were as roses, plagued by persecution at the hands of members of his household."

Published in 2006, Death of a Monk won the President’s Prize for debut novel. Hilu's second novel, The House of Rajani, was published in English in 2010.

Text: Death of a Monk by Alon Hilu, translated by Evan Fallenberg. Harvill Secker, 2006.

Music: Derya Türkan - Nikriz Peşrev Traditional - Üsküdara Giderken Rifat Bey - Prayer for Sultan Murad V Sultan Abdulaziz - Hicazkar Sirto