Several voices narrate this stylistic murder mystery and love story in which a sixteenth-century sultan in Istanbul orders a noted artist, Enishte Effendi, to create a book illustrated in the Western style, which is considered blasphemous in the Islamic world--a dangerous assignment that results in the mysterious death of one of Enishte's chosen gilders.
In sixteenth-century Istanbul, a furor erupts when the Sultan hires a group of artists to illuminate a great book in the European style at a time in which all figurative art is considered Islamic heresy, but the situation becomes worse when one of the miniaturists vanishes.
Several voices narrate this stylistic murder mystery and love story in which a sixteenth-century sultan in Istanbul orders a noted artist, Enishte Effendi, to create a book illustrated in the Western style, which is considered blasphemous in the Islamic world--a dangerous assignment that results in the mysterious death of one of Enishte's chosen gilders.
After years of political exile in Western Europe, Ka returns to Istanbul to attend his mother's funeral, where he learns of a series of bizarre events that have changed his childhood hometown and threaten its future.
A portrait of one of the world's most complex and diverse cities interweaves the history of Istanbul with observations and reflections on the city's landmarks, art, people, institutions, and great spaces.
