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A Gift for the Sultan
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In 1402, the Christian city of Constantinople is under attack by a Muslim army. With surrender in the wind, the spoils are to be the key to the city and the 14-year-old Princess Theodota. In the twists and turns of historical fact, Geoffrey Fox delivers A Gift for the Sultan, a dramatic, fact-based novel that probes the cultural and religious life of the early 15th century
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If you love big novels with wonderful description and real characters that you love, you must read this book. If you liked The Tudors and are enjoying The Borgias, you will delight in A Gift for the Sultan. I am sure one day it will be an epic and we will no longer feel as though we personally lived it, like you can now when you sit by yourself and read about these lives, these wars and these loves. Michael Hirst the noted historical screen play adapter must read this book; but now, now(!)when i
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Some pages of human’s history attract me much more than others like the times of Ottoman Empire. I really have a remarkable list of worthy books depicting the zenith and failure of the unique presence of Ottomans. After reading the next one “A Gift for the Sultan” I made for it a special place on my shelf so to be easy to find it again and reread one day with a pleasure. History and fiction are woven very well, conflicts of interests, of marital, political, religious, morale and culture points w
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ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
This one took me longer to read than I usually take, possibly held back by a lack of knowledge of the historical context and religious culture. The many names introduced, seemingly in every chapter, as well as the many names of places were thrown about so that I had little hope of remembering who was going where and what the significance was. Overall, I had to get about halfway through the book before I could begin to tell which char ...more
This one took me longer to read than I usually take, possibly held back by a lack of knowledge of the historical context and religious culture. The many names introduced, seemingly in every chapter, as well as the many names of places were thrown about so that I had little hope of remembering who was going where and what the significance was. Overall, I had to get about halfway through the book before I could begin to tell which char ...more
This is a very satisfying historical novel. Before this book, I mostly read historical fiction of the nineteenth century (Aubrey/Maturine & Sharpe) so this was different for me. Fox clearly did his research as the story follows the actual history of the struggles between the Turks and Christians (and among the Muslim factions) in the early 15th century. I found myself continually looking up names of weapons and mythical figures mentioned in the text and that added to my enjoyment of the book
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I had expected this book to be a depiction of the historic Islamic siege of Constantinople - or Byzantium, if you will. Instead it was an erudite look at the Christian and Islamic cultures that met in head to head fashion about the city that had been at the core of Christian culture since the inception of Christianity. All this, wrapped about the character of Theodota, a young woman who had been promised to the Islamic sultan. The author has done his history homework here, realistically depictin
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Jun 23, 2011
Michael
rated it
liked it
Recommends it for:
those with special middle eastern interest
I hope the book sells really well in the middle east and the world for that matter. Geoffrey is my goodreads friend with whom I have shared some goodreads messages. My gut tells me that the author is a very good man, and I wish him well. As for the book....I haven't finished yet....perhaps I never will.
Reading the text made me imagine kayaking in too little water. I kept bumping over words and names with which I am not familiar. This sophisticated American hill-billy just couldn't pull that wag ...more
Reading the text made me imagine kayaking in too little water. I kept bumping over words and names with which I am not familiar. This sophisticated American hill-billy just couldn't pull that wag ...more
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Nonfiction: Hispanic Nation: Culture, Politics and the Constructing of Identity (U. Arizona Press); The Land and People or Argentina and The Land and People of Venezuela, both HarperCollins; Fiction: The Bookbinder (work in progress), A Gift for the Sultan, novel, 2010 (print and ebook), Turkish translation Bir cihan, iki sultan, Nokta Kitap, Istanbul, 2013; Welcome to My Contri, short stories of
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