A review by johannalm
Between Love and Honor by Alexandra Lapierre

4.0

An incredibly well researched and interesting adventure story based on the life of Jamal Eddin, son of a famous Imam from Muslim Chechnya (1830's - 1850's). The description of the insanity of fundamentalism and hatred for the other is terrifying and even more frightening because the fanaticism still exists today. The Imam's main enemy is Czar Nicholas, also a despotic ruler, who raises the Imam's son when the boy is given to the Russians as a hostage at age 6. The boy comes to love the Czar and is raised among the royal family and all the nobility who recognize and acknowledge his honorable and distinguished character. He sounds like he was a great person who eventually had to give up all he loved and cherished to go back to his father so that hostages taken by the Imam could be released. He was 26 when he went back to his "home" but did not succeed in bringing peace to the troubled area and dies a sad and depressed young man. Great historical details about the place and time.