The Architect's Apprentice
  • Published: 6 November 2014
  • ISBN: 9780241970959
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 464
Categories:

The Architect's Apprentice

Formats & editions
Paperback
24 Jun 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: 6 November 2014
  • ISBN: 9780241970959
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 464
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

There are Rivers in the Sky
The Island of Missing Trees
Honour
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

Lushly and memorably magic-realist... This is an extraordinarily skilfully crafted and ambitious narrative, with Shakespearean twists and turns, omens and enigmas, prophecies and destinies fulfilled.

Independent on 'Honour'

Rich and wide as the Eupharates river along whose banks it begins and ends, Elif Shafak has woven with masterful care and compassion one immigrant family's heartbreaking story... I loved this book.

Sarah Blake on 'Honour'

A powerful book; thoughtful, provoking and compassionate

Joanne Harris on 'Honour'