RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewLovingly written and lavishly illustrated ... One of the most eminent living scholars and catalogers of medieval European manuscripts, de Hamel is also their greatest champion, having devoted his career to revealing their treasures and mysteries to scholarly and public audiences alike ... As the book’s title might suggest, its tone is deliberately clubby. De Hamel imagines a series of intimate conversations between himself and his historical subjects as he roams across centuries, nations and creeds in his pursuit of the larger narrative of preservation ... At the end of his introduction, de Hamel beckons us through the doors to greet his cast: \'Come to dinner. Let us meet them.\' It’s an invitation all but the most churlish readers will gratefully accept.
Ann Napolitano
RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewRadiant and brilliantly crafted ... Isn\'t a typical sports novel ... Resists the easy satisfactions of the sentimental and never settles for simple answers to emotional predicaments faced by her characters ... Elegant ... Poignant.
Elif Shafak
PositiveThe Tampa Bay TimesWith this new novel, Shafak has given us a work of historical fiction deeply rooted in a particular moment while transcending the time and place of its setting to reimagine a transformative era in all its complexity ... The story's (fictional) protagonist, Jahan, is apprenticed to the great (and historical) Mimar Sinan, a prolific 16th century architect and builder under Suleiman the Magnificent and two of his successors ... The novel is densely episodic... Yet there is great beauty in Shafak's evocations of the era, and the novel can be read as a series of fascinating vignettes on the relationship between art and religion, creativity and devotion ... Nowhere is the novel's sense of place more deftly established than in Shafak's passages on the character of Istanbul ...vibrant, lush and lively, a fitting tribute to the era it so richly reimagines.
