The architect's apprentice

I enjoyed this, another incredibly well written book.

It covers around 100 years of history, revolving around the construction of many famous buildings and Jahan's white elephant friend Chota.

There's politics, romance, battle, and culture - weaved throughout with shards of true historical fact.

The Architect's Apprentice is a beautifully rich novel of sixteenth century Istanbul. It is loosely based around genuine people living in Istanbul at the time - the Sultans existed as did the chief architect, Sinan - however our young hero Jahan is an invention. Shafak says in her afterword that she was inspired to write this novel on seeing a painting of the Sultan. He dominates the picture's foreground, but a boy and his elephant can be seen standing uncertain of themselves in the background. I was amazed at such a detailed story being created from so small a prompt!

Chota, the elephant, often scene-steals the story from Jahan and the rest of the human characters. Istanbul itself is also a strong presence and I appreciated being able to view so many different aspects of the city as it was hundreds of years ago. Jahan finds himself in the midst of the royal palace, but without any status himself which is an interesting contrast. My criticism of The Architect's Apprentice would be that I didn't feel Jahan matured and aged as the others around him did. To me he still seemed to act as a boy even when I was being told that his hair was greying. Except for this though, I loved this book. It doesn't have the political argument of my previous Shafak novel, Three Daughters Of Eve, but it's a good story set in a fascinating city.