The Seraglio

    

     With a nod in the direction of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Katie Hickman's The Aviary Gate is a wonderfully absorbing romantic novel, and the perfect escapist treat. It is set largely in Constantinople in 1599 when a delegation of British diplomats and members of the Levant Company come to present their credentials - and crucially a most elaborate gift - to the Sultan.

    Unbeknownst to Paul Pindar, the Ambassador's secretary and a wealthy merchant in his own right, the girl to whom he was betrothed is now a member of the Sultan's harem. She - Celia - was believed to have drowned at sea when her father's ship was wrecked, but having been captured by corsairs she was sold as a white slave, and now, as she is being initiated into the ways of the concubines, she gets word that her fiancé is close by. Despite her sequestered life, will the two manage to meet? Can they be reunited?

    Paul and Celia's story is mirrored by that of a graduate student in present day Oxford whose research leads her to discover a manuscript fragment tucked into an ancient volume in the Bodleian Library, part of the Pindar Bequest. Elizabeth Staveley feels an almost visceral connection with the strange half-tale of an English woman in the seraglio, and leaving her own unsatisfactory love affair behind her, she travels to Istanbul to see what more she can find out.

   The book's epigraph is from Eliot's Four Quartets: "Footfalls echo in the memory/ Down the passage which we did not take/ Towards the door we never opened/ Into the rose-garden. My words echo/ Thus, in your mind." While that is something of a clue to what happens, for the outcome of this fascinating story which successfully combines real historical figures and fictitious characters, you'll have to read the book!

   I loved all the detail about life in the harem, its strict rules and hierarchy, the enormous influence held by the Sultan's mother and the intrigue and power-play which apparently went on. I can now visualise the Topkapi Palace and feel as though, like Elizabeth, I've been wandering round modern Istanbul, taking in its distinctive sights and souds. This is a lush and vivid book you can lose yourself in, and I enjoyed it so much that I'm greatly looking forward to the sequel, The Pindar Diamond, which is due out next year.

Comments

[Lindsay]

A fine book to read about late medieaval Istanbul is Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red, a major modern novel with an excellent translation available in English - a story of the court, a picture of Istanbul, a discussion about the nature and purpose of art, and a murder mystery to boot. Brilliant, illuminating, exciting: I read it overlooking the Golden Horn.