THE AVIARY GATE
Book ID/图书代码： 11701208B20554
English Summary/英文概要： Whilst searching for ideas for her thesis in Oxford’s Bodleian library, Elizabeth comes across a small scrap of manuscript, unanalysed and unread for hundreds of years. The extraordinary tale of a beautiful European woman with unblemished skin ’as white as milk and glossy as a pearl’ who was captured and forced to work as a concubine in the Sultan’s palace, leads her to modern-day Istanbul to investigate further. From here, the echoes of the story she begins to unearth mingle uneasily with her own experiences of the ancient city.
Told in interweaving narratives of the present day and 16th century Turkey, THE AVIARY GATE presents a story of love and political intrigue and incorporates the frightening sexual politics that dictate the lives of the young women in the harem. 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 sultans 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
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 一个美丽的金发女子，受命运的嘲弄与爱人分离，沦为苏丹王的女奴，在后宫中静静憔悴。 当她与恋人都意识到他们之间仅隔一堵墙时，出逃的计划在脑中生成。
可是，明争暗斗的内廷，动荡不安的时局真能容得下他们矢志不渝的爱情吗？
而失败的代价就是被装在袋子里扔下博斯普鲁斯海峡！
本书如一本宫廷史书，记录了发生在奥斯曼宫殿内阴谋动乱及爱恨纠葛。
Elizabeth Staveley是牛津大学的研究员，她坐在图书馆里，颤抖的双手里是些零落的发黄纸页。这些纸张上记录的是一桩发生在四百年前无人知晓的故事。
四百多年前，一位英国船长的女儿因海难而流落到苏丹，并不幸沦落为国王的女奴。恰在此时，苏丹皇宫内流言不断﹑暗潮涌动。太监总管在尝了美丽的船型棉花糖后中毒身亡。 国王的母亲为儿子最宠爱的妃子所扰，担心她会威胁到自己的地位。与此同时，在皇宫的最隐秘处，一场叛乱正在酝酿中。
此时，商人保罗•品达兼英国大使秘书携带珍贵礼物来觐见苏丹国王。途中，他听闻自己曾深爱的女人西利亚可能还活着并藏于苏丹王的妃子中。传闻中的西利亚与在海难中失踪的西利亚是同一个人吗？如果是的话，有情人能终成眷属吗？
本书引人入胜﹑富有异域情调，带领读者们来到16世纪的君士坦丁堡，跨越雷池一览苏丹王国深似海的后宫。
西利亚的古代爱情故事与伊丽莎白的现代爱情故事交织在一起，让读者们领略两个女主人公不同的风情﹑性格和爱情观。（YM)
Awards/获奖情况：Rights Sold:
UK: Bloomsbury; US: Bloomsbury: Brazil: Record; Denmark: Bazar; France: Lattes; Germany: Ullstein; Greece: Oceanida; Holland: Sijthoff; Israel: Keter; Italy: Garzanti; Norway: Aschehoug; Poland: Bertelsmann; Portugal: Editorial Estampa; Romania: Polirom; Russia: Eksmo; Serbia: Laguna; Spain: El Anden; Turkey: Hitkitap 作者其它作品：
Her first book, ’Dreams of the Peaceful Dragon’ (1987), was an account of a journey on horseback across the forbidden Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.
’The Quetzal Summer’ (1992), was a novel about love and death in the Andes, for which she was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year.
In 1993 she published a second travel book , ’A Trip to the Light Fantasti’c (later re-issued as ’Travels with a Circus’), an account of a year spend living and working with a Mexican circus, for which she was short-listed for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, and which later became one of the Independent’s Books of the Year.
’Daughters of Britannia: the Lives and Times of Diplomatic Wives’ (1999) rose to number two in the Sunday Times Bestseller lists, and remained in the top ten for five consecutive months. It was adapted into a highly successful twenty part series for BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour, and has sold nearly 200,000 copies to date.
’Daughters’ was followed in 2003 by ’Courtesans’, about the lives of British eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth century courtesans, which was also a bestseller, and has sold nealry 90,000 copies.
Brilliant!
About the Author/作者介绍： Katie Hickman is the author of five previous books, including two best-selling history books, Courtesans and Daughters of Britannia. She has written two travel books: Travels with a Circus, which was shortlisted for the 1993 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, and Dreams of the Peaceful Dragon. She is the author of one previous novel, The Quetzal Summer, for which she was listed for the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year award. Katie Hickman lives in London with her two children and her husband, the philosopher A.C.Grayling. Katie Hickman生于外交官家庭，她人生的头二十五个年头流连于欧洲﹑远东和南美。她曾在牛津大学研读英语。此后，她边独自旅行边写作。
Katie Hickman 被列入“剑桥女性旅行家字典”和“任性女人”榜单。她现与丈夫和两个女儿居于伦敦。
Format:HARDCOVER
Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE
Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE
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