A short reading list for understanding Damascus and Syria:
Damascus: Taste of a City by Marie Fadel and Rafik Schami. A literary tribute by two Syrian exiles, structured as a series of letters about Damascene food, smells and street life. Read this before a visit and the Old City will feel familiar.
The Dark Side of Love by Rafik Schami. A sprawling Damascene family epic spanning a century, from the Ottoman period through to the 1960s. Long but immersive; gives a strong sense of how Damascus's communities — Christian, Muslim, Druze, Alawite — lived alongside each other and against each other.
Cities of Salt by Abdelrahman Munif. Munif was born in Amman, lived in Damascus, and wrote what is widely considered the great Arabic novel of the 20th century — a quintet about an unnamed Gulf state transformed by the discovery of oil. Damascus is the editorial heart of the modern Arabic literary world, and you cannot understand its self-image without Munif.
Damascus Nights by Rafik Schami. Set in a Damascus coffee house in the 1950s, where an old storyteller has lost his voice and friends try to bring it back with tales of their own. Short, warm, formally inventive.
The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine. A Lebanese-American novel that draws heavily on Damascene oral tradition — strongly recommended for the same reasons.