The Aviary Gate by Katie Hickman

Description

Bibliographic Details

• Author: Katie Hickman
• Title: The Aviary Gate
• Publisher: ‎ Bloomsbury USA; First U.S. Edition (May 27, 2008)
• Language: ‎ English
• Format: Hardcover – 340 pages
• ISBN-10: ‎ 1596914750
• ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1596914759
• Item Weight: ‎ 1.5 pounds
• Dimensions: ‎ 6.4 x 1.2 x 9.50 inches
• Book Condition: Used – Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Edition: First U.S. Edition

Synopsis:

A lush, ancient tale of treacherous secrets, forbidden love, and murder in an Ottoman palace.

Elizabeth Staveley sits in the Bodleian library, holding in her trembling hands a fragment of ancient paper. It is the key to a story that has been locked away for four centuries―the story of a British sea captain's daughter held captive in the sultan's harem.

Constantinople, 1599. There are rumors and strange stirrings in the sultan's palace. The chief black eunuch has been poisoned by a taste of a beautiful ship made of spun sugar. The sultan's mother faces threats to her power from her son's favorite concubine, and a secret rebellion is rising within the palace's most private quarters.

Meanwhile, the merchant Paul Pindar, secretary to the English ambassador, brings a precious gift to the sultan. As he nears the palace, word comes to Pindar that the woman he once loved, Celia, may be alive, and hidden among the ranks of slaves in the sultan's harem. Can this really be the same Celia who disappeared in a shipwreck? And if it is, can the two be reunited?

Spellbinding and steeped in mystery and sexual intrigue, The Aviary Gate transports readers to exotic sixteenth-century Constantinople, offering the rarest glimpse into the forbidden confines of the sultan's harem.

About the Author:

Katie Hickman (born 1960) is an English novelist, historian and travel writer. She was born in Wellington, New Zealand to the diplomat and author John Kyrle Hickman and Jennifer Olive (Love) Hickman.

She is the author of ten books, including two best-selling history books, which between them have sold more than a quarter of a million copies worldwide. Her travel book A Trip to the Light Fantastic was one of The Independent's Books of the Year (1993) and was short-listed for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award (1994).

Her fiction works have earned a nomination for the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award (The Quetzal Summer, 1993) and her trilogy of historical novels The Aviary Gate (2008), The Pindar Diamond (2011) and The House at Bishopsgate (2016) have been translated into 20 languages. She is featured in the Oxford University Press guide to women travellers, Wayward Women.