The Drowning Guard

A Novel of the Ottoman Empire

by Linda Lafferty

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.

Buy on Amazon Buy on BN.com Buy on Bookshop.org

*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.

Pub Date Sep 03 2013 | Archive Date Sep 02 2013

Amazon Publishing | Lake Union Publishing

General Fiction (Adult) | History

Description

Each morning in the hour before dawn, a silent boat launches on the Bosphorous, moving swiftly into the deepest part of the waters halfway between Europe and Asia, where a man will die…

In a gender reversal of Scheherazade in The Arabian Nights: Tales from a 1,001 Nights, Ottoman princess Esma Sultan seduces a different Christian lover each night, only to have him drowned in the morning. The Sultaness’s true passion burns only for the Christian-born soldier charged with carrying out her brutal nightly death sentence: her drowning guard, Ivan Postivich. The Drowning Guard explores the riddle of Esma — who is at once a murderer and a champion and liberator of women — and the man who loves her in spite of her horrifying crimes. This textured historical novel, set in the opulence and squalor of Istanbul in 1826, is woven with the complexity and consequences of love.

Each morning in the hour before dawn, a silent boat launches on the Bosphorous, moving swiftly into the deepest part of the waters halfway between Europe and Asia, where a man will die…

In a gender...

Advance Praise

"Part intoxicating Scherazade story and part dazzling historical drama, The Drowning Guard features a Sultan's sister who's a compassionate killer set against a richly textured era that's as startlingly alive as it is brutal. Literary alchemist Lafferty has crafted a page turner so witty, smart and original, that the spell lingers long after the final pages.” —Caroline Leavitt, author of Pictures of You and Is This Tomorrow: A Novel

"Part intoxicating Scherazade story and part dazzling historical drama, The Drowning Guard features a Sultan's sister who's a compassionate killer set against a richly textured era that's as...