Rich in sensuous detail, this first novel brilliantly captures the political and social upheavals of the waning Ottoman Empire. The naked body of a young Englishwoman washes up in Istanbul wearing a pendant inscribed with the seal of the deposed sultan. The death resembles the murder by strangulation of another English governess, a crime that was never solved. Kamil Pasha, a magistrate in the new secular courts, sets out to find the killer, but his dispassionate belief in science and modernity is shaken by betrayal and widening danger. In a lush, mystical voice, a young Muslim woman, Jaanan, recounts her own relationships with one of the dead women and her suspected killer. Were these political murders involving the palace or crimes of personal passion? An absorbing tale that transports the reader to nineteenth-century Turkey, this novel is also a lyrical meditation on the contradictory desires of the human soul.
Reading group guide included. Includes the first chapter of the next Kamil Pasha novel.
- ISBN10 0393329208
- ISBN13 9780393329209
- Publish Date 13 April 2007 (first published 1 January 2006)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 20 March 2016
- Publish Country US
- Imprint WW Norton & Co
- Format Paperback
- Pages 366
- Language English