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The Golden Throne

The Golden Throne

The Curse of a King

Summary

Istanbul, 1537. The greatest of the Ottoman Sultans is at his personal apogee and the pinnacle of world power. With both Christianity and Islam riven by schism, he is mighty enough to maul different enemies in different hemispheres at the same time. But a terrible crisis is building that will rip Suleyman’s family apart as his beloved wife Hurrem wages pitiless war against his first-born son, Mustafa, and the boy’s mother Mahidevran.

From the Baillie Gifford shortlisted historian, this intensely gripping, cinematic account of the life and world of Suleyman the Magnificent tells the story of one of the most consequential lives in world history while pioneering a ground-breaking new form of 'history in the present tense'.

Reviews

  • This is history, but not as we know it. It is non-fiction posing as a novel, rich in incident and cinematic detail. It's tremendous . . . It's a sign of how thoroughly gripping this book is that I found myself wanting a second volume as soon as possible
    Justin Marozzi, The Times on The Lion House

About the author

Christopher de Bellaigue

Christopher de Bellaigue is the award-winning author of The Lion House: The Rise of Suleyman the Magnificent, which was chosen as a book of the year by The Times, Sunday Times, Spectator and New Yorker among others, as well as five previous books, including The Islamic Enlightenment, which was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction and the Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2017. As a reporter in the 1990s and 2000s, he covered the politics and invasions that shaped Turkey, the Middle East and South Asia for, among others, the Economist, Guardian and New York Review of Books. He has also made television and radio programmes and has lectured at universities and in boardrooms around the world.
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