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A lush, ancient tale of treacherous secrets, forbidden love,
and murder in an Ottoman palace.
Elizabeth Staveley sits in the Bodleian library, holding in
her trembling hands a fragment of ancient paper. It is the
key to a story that has been locked away for four centuries-the
story of a British sea captain's daughter held captive in
the sultan's harem.
Constantinople, 1599. There are rumors and strange stirrings
in the sultan's palace. The chief black eunuch has been poisoned
by a taste of a beautiful ship made of spun sugar. The sultan's
mother faces threats to her power from her son's favorite
concubine, and a secret rebellion is rising within the palace's
most private quarters.
Meanwhile, the merchant Paul Pindar, secretary to the English
ambassador, brings a precious gift to the sultan. As he nears
the palace, word comes to Pindar that the woman he once loved,
Celia, may be alive, and hidden among the ranks of slaves
in the sultan's harem. Can this really be the same Celia who
disappeared in a shipwreck? And if it is, can the two be reunited?
Spellbinding and steeped in mystery and sexual intrigue, "The
Aviary Gate" transports readers to exotic
sixteenth-century Constantinople, offering the rarest glimpse
into the forbidden confines of the sultan's harem.
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