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Published: 24 June 2015
ISBN: 9780241970942
Imprint: Penguin General UK
Format: Paperback
Pages: 464
RRP: $24.99

Categories:

The Architect's Apprentice

Elif Shafak

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Booktopia

A sweeping, magical novel from Elif Shafak set in 16th-century Istanbul, bursting with colour, romance and white elephants

Sixteenth-century Istanbul: a stowaway arrives in the city bearing an extraordinary gift for the Sultan. The boy is utterly alone in a foreign land, with no possessions, except Chota, a rare white elephant destined for the palace menagerie.

So begins an epic adventure that will see young Jahan rise from lowly origins to the highest ranks of the Sultan’s court. Along the way, he will meet deceitful courtiers and false friends, gypsies, animal tamers and the beautiful, mischievous Princess Mihrimah. He will journey with Chota to the furthest corners of the kingdom and back again. And one day, he will catch the eye of the royal architect, Sinan, a chance encounter destined to change Jahan’s fortunes for ever.

The Architect’s Apprentice is a magical, sweeping tale of one boy and his elephant, caught up in a world of wonder and danger.

Published: 24 June 2015
ISBN: 9780241970942
Imprint: Penguin General UK
Format: Paperback
Pages: 464
RRP: $24.99

Categories:

About the author

Elif Shafak

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist whose work has been translated into fifty-five languages. The author of nineteen books, twelve of which are novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak's latest novel, The Island of Missing Trees, was a top ten Sunday Times bestseller, a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick and was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and the Women's Prize. Her previous novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize; longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award; and chosen as Blackwell's Book of the Year. She is a Vice-President of the Royal Society of Literature. Shafak was awarded the Halldór Laxness International Literature Prize for her contribution to 'the renewal of the art of storytelling.'

Also by Elif Shafak

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World

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Praise for The Architect's Apprentice

'A gorgeous picture of a city teeming with secrets, intrigue and romance'
The Times

'Shafak's most ambitious novel yet her best - generous and imaginative'
Independent

'Exuberant, epic and comic, fantastical and realistic . . . like all good stories it conveys deeper meanings about human experience'
Financial Times

'Fascinating. A vigorous evocation of the Ottoman Empire at the height of its power'
Sunday Times

'Intricate, multi-layered, resplendent, vividly evoked, beautifully written'
Observer

'Sumptuous, absorbing, moving'
Independent on Sunday

A gorgeous picture of a city teeming with secrets, intrigue and romance
The Times

Exuberant, epic and comic, fantastical and realistic . . . like all good stories it conveys deeper meanings about human experience
Financial Times

Fascinating. A vigorous evocation of the Ottoman Empire at the height of its power
Sunday Times

Intricate, multi-layered, resplendent, vividly evoked, beautifully written
Observer

Sumptuous, absorbing, moving
Independent on Sunday