By Michael David Lukas
An elegantly crafted, completely mesmerizing debut novel set in a paranormal, unique international, during which a proficient younger woman charms a sultan and adjustments the process an empire's history
Late in the summertime of 1877, a flock of purple-and-white hoopoes without warning seems to be over town of Constanta at the Black Sea, and Eleonora Cohen is ushered into the realm through a mysterious pair of Tartar midwives who arrive simply mins ahead of her beginning. "They had learn the indicators, they stated: a sea of horses, a convention of birds, the North superstar in alignment with the moon. It used to be a prophecy that their final king had given on his deathwatch." yet pleasure is blended with tragedy, for Eleonora's mom dies quickly after the beginning.
Raised through her doting father, Yakob, a carpet service provider, and her stern, envious stepmother, Ruxandra, Eleonora spends her early years having a pipe dream and doing housework—until the instant she teaches herself to learn, and her father acknowledges that she is a very proficient baby, a prodigy.
When Yakob units off by means of boat for Stamboul on company, eight-year-old Eleonora, not able to undergo the separation, stows away in a single of his trunks. at the shorelines of the Bosporus, in the home of her father's enterprise companion, Moncef Bey, a brand new existence awaits. Books, backgammon, appealing clothes and footwear, markets swarming with colour and life—the imperial capital overflows with attractiveness, and secret. For within the slim streets of Stamboul—a urban on the crossroads of the world—intrigue and gossip are foreign money, and folks are usually not continuously what they appear. Eleonora's teach, an American minister and educator, could be a undercover agent. The kindly even though elusive Moncef Bey has a prior historical past of mystery societies and political maneuvering. and what's to be made up of the eccentric, captivating Sultan Abdulhamid II himself, beleaguered through pal and foe alike as his unwieldy, multiethnic empire crumbles?
The Oracle of Stamboul is a marvelously evocative, magical ancient novel that might delivery readers to a different time and place—romantic, unique, but remarkably just like our own.
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Extra resources for The Oracle of Stamboul: A Novel
Sample text
It was very quiet for just a moment, and then the two men, president and magician, began a discussion. As time was short, they couldn’t speak at length, but they did manage to speak in depth. Harding’s casket stood at the west end of the lobby of the Palace Hotel on Friday, August third. There was some embarrassment at first, as the only American flag anyone could find to drape over it was the one that had flown in front of the Palace since 1913, and weathering and soot made it a shabby tribute indeed.
Charles wondered if this odd appliance was related to sewing somehow. There were a half dozen attachments, which he quickly determined fit over the ball-shaped nose: cones, grids, planes with raised bumps. Then he found the brochure: VIBRATION IS LIFE What woman hasn’t lost her fair share of life to the mysterious ailments that incapacitate her zest and zeal? Feminine complaints can constrict the flow of the vital humors, leading to restlessness, furtive amativeness, a corruption of morals and the downfall of her happy home.
Oh. ” “Oh. ” Sullivan flipped his paper over. Because James never talked to strangers, Charles was unsure what he, the older brother, should do. For some reason, James started a story— about a friend of his who had his own bicycle—that had so many false starts that Sullivan finally put his newspaper down and stared, hard, at James. Charles wasn’t sure why, but he felt growing embarrassment for himself and his brother, as if they’d seen someone naked in the bath, and, even worse, they’d paid to do it.