The Drowning Guard: A Novel Of The Ottoman Empire (2013) - Plot & Excerpts
When you are an officer in the Ottoman army, you do as you are told by the Sultan and his family. If Esma Sultana, favored sister of Mahmud II commands you to drown her Christian lover in Constantinople’s Bosphoros Strait, you do it. However, performing this gruesome task night after night after night, then delivering the desperate man’s final words to the Sultana’s eunuch, is tearing Ivan Postivich apart.Then Postivich is taken to the Sultana’s palace. It seems that Esma is tormented by horrific visions, and thinks that confession might ease her conscience. After all, Ivan Postivich shares her moral burden and won’t be able to judge her, but he might understand what she is going through. Postivich would rather break the woman’s neck for her crimes, but to refuse her would be suicide. He listens to Esma’s side of the story, and slowly comes to believe her. Postivich also begins to love Esma despite her appalling acts. However, Esma has also proven herself to be ruthless. Now that she has told Postivich her secrets, can he survive?Linda Lafferty, in her 2013 historical drama, The Drowning Guard, invokes Scheherazade as she introduces us to the real life Esma Sultana, born in 1778. Elevated by birth beyond many of the strictures applied to Muslim women, Esma owned her own palaces, and had her own harem of women rescued from slavery. Ms. Lafferty does a terrific job weaving fact and fiction into a lush psychological tale which will haunt you, just as Esma and Ivan Postivich are haunted by their intertwined deeds. I thought it was bodice ripping claptrap. The author has taken some alleged and shocking historical facts about the Ottoman empire and tried to weave a romantic story around them. It felt like she was making it up as she went along. Poorly written and with horrible feminist pretensions. Ghastly book, suprised it ever got published. Every time the Sultaness "arched one eyebrow" I thought I was going to scream. Absolute trash. Only finished it because I took it on holiday and was stuck with it although I skipped the squirmingly embarassing sex bit near the end. Horrible. It was offered free on Amazon for kindle so at least I didn't waste money buying it.
What do You think about The Drowning Guard: A Novel Of The Ottoman Empire (2013)?
Enjoyable,read,to me a while to get into the story but it pulled me in at the end.
—osaka2012
