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Like a Sword Wound
Like a Sword Wound | Ahmet Altan
5 posts | 2 read | 7 to read
A deeply compelling and immersive narrative about love, desire, loneliness and landscape.Elif Shafak Altans Ottoman Quartet spans the fifty years between the final decades of the 19th century and the post-WWI rise of Atatrk as both unchallenged leader and visionary reformer of the new Turkey. The four books tell the stories of an unforgettable cast of characters, among them: an Ottoman army officer, the Sultans personal doctor, a scion of the royal house whose Western education brings him into conflict with his familys legacy, and a beguiling Turkish aristocrat who, while fond of her emancipated life in Paris, finds herself drawn to a conservative Muslim spiritual leader. Intrigue, betrayal, love, war, progress, and tradition provide a colourful backdrop against which their lives play out. All the while, the society to which they belong is transforming, and the Sublime Empire disintegrates. Here is a Turkish saga reminiscent of War and Peace, that traces not only the social currents of the time but also the erotic and emotional lives of its characters.
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GatheringBooks
Like a Sword Wound | Ahmet Altan
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#BookBinge Day 28: There is gorgeous #HairOnCover in this Europa Editions novel from Turkey.

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Love her red hair 👩‍🦰 7mo
Eggs Great cover 7mo
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jfount
Like a Sword Wound | Ahmet Altan
Pickpick

A man in the present day is visited by the ghosts of his ancestors and their associates, who detail their political and personal dramas in the declining days of the Ottoman Empire. In the first 75 pages, this mostly looks like a guy watching his great grandfather‘s first wife experience sexual awakening... but the book quickly expands and becomes an absorbing and compelling set of intertwining tales. The ‘ghost‘ framing is interesting; it‘s >>

jfount >> not obtrusive (mostly the story is narrated like any omniscient third person novel), but the frame allows for a degree of hindsight to be introduced as events are happening. I enjoyed this and will probably be interested in the next of the series whenever it comes out in English. 5y
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jfount
Like a Sword Wound | Ahmet Altan
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Pg. 122-3.

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jfount
Like a Sword Wound | Ahmet Altan

“When he reached the age of twenty-four, his father decided he should marry. Naturally, when the Sultan said, ‘How is your dear son, Pasha, apparently he hasn‘t married yet, the young should be made to marry,‘ it played an important role in the making of this decision; the Sultan believed that unmarried people were more dangerous, and he was correct in this belief.”

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Jen2
Like a Sword Wound | Ahmet Altan
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Pickpick

Wonderful book from Turkey.

Booksnchill I‘ve been looking at this one- sounds interesting. 5y
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