istanbul (turkey)

Follows a Turkish boy during a typical day for him and his family in Isanbul, in a story told in both English and Turkish.

In 1836, eunuch sleuth Yashim investigates a series of killings in the sultan's court, honing in on the Janissaries, the marginalized former imperial guards who have become ruthless mercenaries and may have committed the murders in an attempt to regain power.

Recounts the author's experiences fleeing Iran as a young boy during the Iran-Iraq war, and making his way on his own in the unfamiliar city of Istanbul in hopes of attaining a visa in England.

Abbas Kazerooni recalls his time in England as a ten-year-old having fled the Iranian army only to find himself homeless and without a visa by the age of thirteen.

Describes the background to and the events of the 1453 siege of the Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire, by Turkish Muslims.

Yashim Togalu, nineteenth-century eunuch and imperial investigator, inquires into a wave of murders in Istanbul, Turkey, and uncovers the revival of the Janissaries, the Ottoman military force abolished ten years earlier, who are planning to overthrow the government.