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The Oracle of Stamboul A Novel Michael David Lukas 9780062012098 Books

Download As PDF : The Oracle of Stamboul A Novel Michael David Lukas 9780062012098 Books

The Oracle of Stamboul A Novel Michael David Lukas 9780062012098 Books

This author is so talented at giving you a sense of place. You are instantly transported to 19th century Turkey -- the sites the smells the feel of the place. Characters are deep and well drawn. I loved this book and hated for it to end!


Tags : The Oracle of Stamboul: A Novel [Michael David Lukas] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. THE ORACLE OF STAMBOUL is a magical historical novel about an astonishing eight-year-old girl in the last days of the Ottoman Empire.It is 1877,Michael David Lukas,The Oracle of Stamboul: A Novel,Harper,0062012096,Historical - General,Girls;Turkey;Fiction.,Oracles;Turkey;Fiction.,Sultans;Turkey;Fiction.,American First Novelists,American Historical Fiction,FICTION Fantasy Historical,FICTION Historical General,FICTION Literary,Fiction,Fiction - General,General,Girls,Oracles,Sultans,Turkey

The Oracle of Stamboul A Novel Michael David Lukas 9780062012098 Books Reviews

I enjoyed this book very much! It flowed well and was very descriptive of a part of the world I am unfamiliar with, but fascinated by, Turkey and the Ottoman empire.
The author did his "homework". Wonderful facts and descriptions of places,smells,tastes.
Unusual story that made me want to keep on reading another few pages before putting it down.

Have been telling my friends about it and will mention it to my book club. Love a bit of "fantasy",language that has you in the "moment".

I would definitely read another book by this author.
Very well written. M. D. Lucas is artist who paints an awesome picture with his words. Unfortunately I'm not so great with words to do him justice. Suffice to say, I will keep an eye out for this author... -)
I was quite excited to read this novel about Turkey (especially after hearing an interview with the author on NPR) and anticipated losing myself in the magic of Eleonora's adventures. Instead, I was largely struck by huge chunks of wordiness and unnecessary characters. Every time the story started to pick up pace and get more interesting, poor word choose or a dry situation would kill the moment.

While the protagonist was Jewish, her being Jewish didn't have much of an impact on the story (only a sentence or two that the Sultan's mother distrusted Jews). I would have liked to have seen Eleonora's character and personality developed a bit more. It was, after all, her story.

While the ending wasn't horrible, it was quite anti-climactic. there was build up to pretty much nothing at the end, which left me quite disappointed. The magic of the hoopoes diminished as did my hope in and of the "oracle." This novel had the potential to be better than it was.
The Oracle of Stamboul is a delightful story. The descriptions of Turkey are accurate and gracefully crafted. The incorporation of history is so skillfully done that one is not aware that the author is filling in spaces in most readers knowledge of the Ottoman Empire and its relationships with European countries.
If you enjoy reading for its unique possibilities -- mellifluous language, vivid imagery, immersion in places and circumstances you might never experience -- then you'll love this book. From the very first page, The Oracle of Stamboul will draw you relentlessly into the world of the Ottoman Empire in its twilight years of the 1880s. You'll meet an extraordinary child, Eleanora Cohen, and you'll be present with her from the violence of her birth in Rumania through her ninth year in Istanbul (then Stamboul) as the unlikeliest of advisers to the Sultan. You'll revel in the sights and sounds and smells of this fabled imperial capital of two million souls, and you'll gain a front-row seat on the plotting and scheming in the palace and among the timid revolutionaries who only wish that something, perhaps anything, might change. This book is a marvel of the writer's craft.

For example, consider this scene-setting passage

"Summer slipped into Stamboul under the cover of a midday shower. It took up residence near the foundations of the Galata Bridge and drifted through the city like a stray dog. Ducking in and out of alleyways, the new season made itself felt in the tenacity of fruit flies buzzing about a pyramid of figs, in the increasingly confident tone of the muezzin, and the growing petulance of the shopkeepers in the produce market."

And that's just the beginning of the paragraph.

The nine-year arc of this richly detailed story begins in the Rumanian town of Constanta, with the death of Eleanora's mother just minutes after her own birth. You'll follow Eleanora and her father through through her early years as she demonstrates the extraordinary powers of her young mind, learning new languages in hours as though by magic and devouring the Greek and Roman classics in the original. You'll follow her father, Yakov, on his journey to Stamboul to sell the most valuable of his stock of carpets, with Eleanora stowed away on the ship that carries him to the imperial capital.

I have nothing but good things to say about this outstanding first novel -- except for the ending, which I found abrupt and disappointing. It struck me almost as though the book's young author couldn't figure out how to resolve his tale and simply dropped it in the middle.
This author is so talented at giving you a sense of place. You are instantly transported to 19th century Turkey -- the sites the smells the feel of the place. Characters are deep and well drawn. I loved this book and hated for it to end!