A review by jgolomb
عرافة إسطنبول by Michael David Lukas, مايكل ديفيد لوكاس
4.0
“Hoopoes coated the town like frosting, piped along the rain gutters of the governor’s mansion and slathered on the gilt dome of the Orthodox church. In the trees around Yakob and Leah Cohen’s house the flock seemed especially excited, chattering, flapping their wrings, and hopping from branch to branch like a crowd of peasants lining the streets of the capital for an imperial parade. The hoopoes would probably have been regarded as an auspicious sign, where it not for the unfortunate events that coincided with Eleonora’s birth.”
- from “The Oracle of Stamboul” by Michael David Lukas
Amid portents that include this ‘conference’ of birds, Eleonora Cohen is come into this world. Signs, signs, everywhere there’s signs. An ancient prophecy (which is never detailed) foretold the birth of this very unique child. “Just after twilight, in that ethereal hour when the sky moves through purple to darkness, the hoopoes fell silent. The gunshots ceased and the rumbling of hoofbeats whittled to nothing. It was as if the entire world had paused to take a breath. In that moment, a weary groan choked out of the bedroom, followed by a fleshy slap and the cry of a newborn child.”
This wonderful story follows the travails of a young and uniquely gifted girl in late 19th Century Europe. Motherless, Eleonora (and her flock of hoopoes) stows away on a streamliner destined for (I)Stamboul, where her father intends to spend a month selling oriental rugs. Eleonora is not just a special child. But a girl. A jewish girl. A savant.
Her flock feeds her, protects her, scouts for her. “With time....it became apparent that their attraction was connected in some way to Eleonora. It was almost as if they regarded her as part of their flock, the queen without which their lives had no purpose. They slept when she slept, stood guard while she bathed, and when she left the house, a small contingency broke off to follow along overhead"
The hoopoes are referenced in an ancient allegory which casts the bird as a Sufi master who leads a group of thirty pupils on a pilgrimage to find God. It's an appropriate metaphor for Eleonora and the ever growing role she plays within the Caliph's court in Stamboul.
“The hoopoes would have been more surprising perhaps if Eleonora were not such an extraordinary creature herself. Even when she was an infant in her nurse’s arms, one could already discern the first shoots of what would later blossom into a stunning and demure beauty, her pleasant flushing cheeks crowned with a next of curls, wide green eyes the color of sea glass, and milk teeth like tiny cubes of ivory. She rarely cried, took her first steps at eight months, and was speaking in complete sentences by the age of two.”
The story takes place during a time when Stamboul is in transition. The Ottoman ways are very much in place and settled in. The world around them is changing. The Sultan, Abdulhamid II, is slowly finding ways to modernize his kingdom, but the world is simply moving to fast to keep up. The Sultan finds an odd ally and advisor in the sweetly naive jewish girl.
Lukas' engaging writing style paints a colorful world of Sultans and court politics. His characters are subtlety complex, well-fleshed through poetic prose and sensible plot points. The deftly layered personalities are well-structured over the course of the book.
My only negative is that the story could easily have carried additional pages. I was sad to say farewell to the world of this extraordinary girl.
- from “The Oracle of Stamboul” by Michael David Lukas
Amid portents that include this ‘conference’ of birds, Eleonora Cohen is come into this world. Signs, signs, everywhere there’s signs. An ancient prophecy (which is never detailed) foretold the birth of this very unique child. “Just after twilight, in that ethereal hour when the sky moves through purple to darkness, the hoopoes fell silent. The gunshots ceased and the rumbling of hoofbeats whittled to nothing. It was as if the entire world had paused to take a breath. In that moment, a weary groan choked out of the bedroom, followed by a fleshy slap and the cry of a newborn child.”
This wonderful story follows the travails of a young and uniquely gifted girl in late 19th Century Europe. Motherless, Eleonora (and her flock of hoopoes) stows away on a streamliner destined for (I)Stamboul, where her father intends to spend a month selling oriental rugs. Eleonora is not just a special child. But a girl. A jewish girl. A savant.
Her flock feeds her, protects her, scouts for her. “With time....it became apparent that their attraction was connected in some way to Eleonora. It was almost as if they regarded her as part of their flock, the queen without which their lives had no purpose. They slept when she slept, stood guard while she bathed, and when she left the house, a small contingency broke off to follow along overhead"
The hoopoes are referenced in an ancient allegory which casts the bird as a Sufi master who leads a group of thirty pupils on a pilgrimage to find God. It's an appropriate metaphor for Eleonora and the ever growing role she plays within the Caliph's court in Stamboul.
“The hoopoes would have been more surprising perhaps if Eleonora were not such an extraordinary creature herself. Even when she was an infant in her nurse’s arms, one could already discern the first shoots of what would later blossom into a stunning and demure beauty, her pleasant flushing cheeks crowned with a next of curls, wide green eyes the color of sea glass, and milk teeth like tiny cubes of ivory. She rarely cried, took her first steps at eight months, and was speaking in complete sentences by the age of two.”
The story takes place during a time when Stamboul is in transition. The Ottoman ways are very much in place and settled in. The world around them is changing. The Sultan, Abdulhamid II, is slowly finding ways to modernize his kingdom, but the world is simply moving to fast to keep up. The Sultan finds an odd ally and advisor in the sweetly naive jewish girl.
Lukas' engaging writing style paints a colorful world of Sultans and court politics. His characters are subtlety complex, well-fleshed through poetic prose and sensible plot points. The deftly layered personalities are well-structured over the course of the book.
My only negative is that the story could easily have carried additional pages. I was sad to say farewell to the world of this extraordinary girl.