Michael David Lukas

Digital audiobook performed by Mozhan Marno

This work of historical fiction takes us to 19th-century Stamboul, seat of the Ottoman Empire (now, Istanbul, Turkey). When her mother dies as Eleanora Cohen is born, a flock of hoopoes suddenly appears. Two midwives appear mysteriously to deliver the child and begin caring for her; they claim to have “read the signs.” Raised by her father, a carpet merchant, she is indulged and cosseted. Clearly intelligent (she is reading advanced works at an early age), she manages to stowaway on his voyage to Stamboul. Eventually, Eleanora charms and intrigues the sultan, himself, with her precocious intellect and astute observations.

I was completely enchanted by this tale. In may ways it reads like a fairy tale, with castles and secret passages, court intrigue and wicked stepmothers, and, of course, the mysterious flock of hoopoes which follow Eleanora wherever she goes.

The writing is atmospheric and mystical. There were times when I had to remind myself of the setting in the late 19th century.

There were a couple of threads that disappeared without a satisfying conclusion, and the ending is ambiguous. But, on the whole, I was great entertained by this novel.

Mozhan Marno does a wonderful job of performing the audiobook. He really brought the setting and the characters to life for me.… (plus d'informations)

Years ago, I read "Sacred Trash: the lost and found world of the Cairo Geniza", by Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole. That led me to "The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels", by Janet Soskice, about two Scots Presbyterian "learned ladies" who assisted Solomon Schecnter in acquiring documents from the Geniza for Cambridge University.

Lukas' book is a work of fiction, moving between the story of the first watchman of the Ibn Ezra synagogue, a young Muslim orphan boy, set in the 11th-century; that of the discoveries at the Geniza in the late 19th-century; and that of an present-day American graduate student, son of an Egyptian Jewish mother and an Egyptian Muslim father, a descendant of the family that for centuries served as watchmen at the synagogue.

Lukas does a lovely job of describing Cairo in these three vastly different periods.… (plus d'informations)