The architect's apprentice / Elif Shafak.
Material type: TextPublication details: London : Viking, an imprint of Penguin Books, 2014.Description: 455, [1] pages ; 24 cmISBN:- 9780241004920
- 0241004926
- Sinan, Mimar, 1489 or 1490-1588 -- Fiction
- Mihrimah Sultan, 1522-1578 -- Fiction
- Architects -- Turkey -- 16th century -- Fiction
- Istanbul (Turkey) -- History -- 16th century -- Fiction
- Turkey -- Social life and customs -- 16th century -- Fiction
- Turkey -- History -- Süleyman I, 1520-1566 -- Fiction
- Turkey -- History -- Ottoman Empire, 1288-1918 -- Fiction
- 894 SHA
Item type | Current library | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Standard Loan | Moylish Library Fiction Collection | 894 SHA (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 39002100482661 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
There were six of us: the master, the apprentices and the white elephant. We built everything together. Mosques, bridges, madrasas, caravanserais, alms houses, aqueducts . . .
I think about Istanbul every day. People must be walking now across the courtyards of the mosques, not knowing, not seeing. They would rather assume that the buildings around them had been there since the time of Noah. They were not. We raised them: Muslims and Christians, craftsmen and galley slaves, humans and animals, day upon day. But Istanbul is a city of easy forgettings. Things are written in water over there, except the works of my master; which are written in stone.
Beneath one stone, I buried a secret. Much time has gone by, but it must still be there, waiting to be discovered. I wonder if anyone will ever find it.
If they do, will they understand?
This novel was first published in Turkey, though it was written in English first.--Pages 455-[456].
In her latest novel, Turkey's pre-eminent female writer spins an epic tale spanning nearly a century in the life of the Ottoman Empire. In 1540, twelve-year-old Jahan arrives in Istanbul. As an animal tamer in the sultan's menagerie, he looks after the exceptionally smart elephant Chota and befriends (and falls for) the sultan's beautiful daughter, Princess Mihrimah. A palace education leads Jahan to Mimar Sinan, the empire's chief architect, who takes Jahan under his wing as they construct (with Chota's help) some of the most magnificent buildings in history. Yet even as they build Sinan's triumphant masterpieces--the incredible Suleymaniye and Selimiye mosques--dangerous undercurrents begin to emerge, with jealousy erupting among Sinan's four apprentices.--Publisher's website.
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Author notes provided by Syndetics
Elif Shafak was born in Strasbourg, France, in 1971. She is an award-winning novelist and the most widely read woman writer in Turkey. Critics have named her as 'one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Turkish and world literature'. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages and she was awarded the honorary distinction of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.
Shafak has published eleven books, eight of which are novels. She writes fiction in both Turkish and English. Shafak blends Western and Eastern traditions of storytelling, bringing out the myriad stories of women, minorities, immigrants, subcultures, youth and global souls. Her work draws on diverse cultures and literary traditions, as well as deep interest in history, philosophy, Sufism, oral culture, and cultural politics. Shafak's writing breaks down categories, clichés, and cultural ghettoes. She also has a keen eye for black humor.
Shafak's first novel, Pinhan (The Mystic) was awarded the 'Rumi Prize' in 1998, which is given to the best work in mystical literature in Turkey. Her second novel, Şehrin Aynaları (Mirrors of the City), brings together Jewish and Islamic mysticism against a historical setting in the 17th century Mediterranean. Shafak greatly increased her readership with her novel Mahrem (The Gaze), which earned her