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The Architect's Apprentice
  • Published: 24 June 2015
  • ISBN: 9780241970942
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 464
  • RRP: $28.00

The Architect's Apprentice

Formats & editions
Paperback
24 June 2015
EBook
6 Nov 2014
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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: $28.00
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About the author

Elif Shafak

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist, whose work has been translated into fifty-eight languages. The author of twenty books, thirteen of which are novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak’s novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize. The Island of Missing Trees was a Sunday Times bestseller, and was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and the Women’s Prize for Fiction. There are Rivers in the Sky, which won an Edward Stanford Award for Fiction, is her latest novel. Shafak holds a PhD in political science, and is a Fellow and a Vice President of the Royal Society of Literature. She has been awarded the medal of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and, in 2024, was awarded the British Academy President's Medal for ‘her excellent body of work which demonstrates an incredible intercultural range’.
ES

Also by Elif Shafak

There are Rivers in the Sky
The Island of Missing Trees
A Ghostly Little Book
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World
Three Daughters of Eve
The Bastard of Istanbul
Black Milk
See all

Praise for The Architect's Apprentice

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

'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