WRITING ABOUT LOCALES: SYRIA. Guest Post by Howard Kaplan
Pictured is the boutique Talisman Hotel in Damascus, Syria in the former Jewish quarter, the home transformed after its owners fled the country.  In my new historical novel, THE SYRIAN SUNSET, I note that in 2007, Nancy Pelosi had lunch in the Talisman courtyard with President Bashar al-Assad and his British born wife, Asma. Asma is a looker, spreads in VOGUE, think Princess Diana; in fact she wanted to be the Princess Di of the Middle East. Asma met the ophthalmologist Bashar in London and soon chose to marry him and forego her admission to Harvard Business School, in order to modernize Syria. Once there though it seems shocked, she sat silent, had kids, and watched Bashar crush the country. She did though host Nancy Pelosi and her entourage; politicians far and near regularly were charmed by the wiles of Bashar and Asma and their British lilts.Â
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