Sarah Chalfant at the Wylie Agency introduced me to this other world. My thanks to the team, but above all to Charles Buchan for his tireless and good-humored efforts on Yashim’s behalf. I have been lucky to have two superb editing editors, Julian Loose at Faber in the U.K. and Sarah Crichton at Farrar, Straus and Giroux in New York, whose wisdom I have always received gratefully, and have generally acted upon.
Much of this book was written far away from the rumpus of family life, with no interruptions, no battles for control of the computer. My son, Izaak, has grown tall and learned much. This book is for him.
A Note About the Author
JASON GOODWIN fell under the spell of Istanbul while studying Byzantine history at Cambridge University. Following the success of his book A Time for Tea: Travels Through China and India in Search of Tea, he made a six-month pilgrimage across Eastern Europe to reach Istanbul for the first time, a journey recounted in On Foot to the Golden Horn: A Walk to Istanbul. He is also the author of Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire and The Janissary Tree, the first book featuring Investigator Yashim. He lives in Sussex, England, and is married with four children.
SARAH CRICHTON BOOKS
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
19 Union Square West, New York 10003
Copyright © 2007 by Jason Goodwin
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Goodwin, Jason, 1964–
The snake stone / Jason Goodwin.—1st ed.
p. cm.
“Sarah Crichton books”—T.p. verso.
ISBN: 978-1-4299-8769-1
1. Eunuchs—Fiction. 2. Police—Turkey—Istanbul—Fiction. 3. Favorites, Royal—Fiction. 4. Istanbul (Turkey)—Court and courtiers—Fiction. 5. Istanbul (Turkey)—History—19th century—
Fiction. I. Title.
PS3607.O59227S63 2007
813'.6—dc22
2007006943
www.fsgbooks.com