The Aviary Gate: A Novel [Hardcover]

Katie Hickman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 27, 2008

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sixteenth-century sexual politics inside the Ottoman sultan's harem come to life as Hickman (Courtesans) takes her fascination with fallen women into the fictional realm with this historical novel featuring exotic locales and erotic situations. Linking past and present heroines, the story follows Oxford researcher Elizabeth Staveley as she uncovers the 400-year-old story of Celia Lamprey, a sea captain's daughter engaged to merchant-turned-diplomat Paul Pindar when she's lost in a shipwreck. Celia doesn't drown, of course. She becomes a concubine-in-training in Constantinople, where Paul serves as secretary to the British Embassy. When the embassy sends a gift to the sultan (a ship made of spun sugar), Paul finds out that Celia is alive and well. Meanwhile, the sultan's chief black eunuch has been poisoned and as his favorite concubine battles for supremacy with his mother, both women draw Celia into their intrigues. Despite all this, the book never transforms into a literary tour-de-force (like A.S. Byatt's Possession), partly because the author is trying to balance too many story lines. Hickman creates richly described imaginative moments, but like Celia's early encounters with the sultan, the excitement is never consummated. (June)
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Review

“Combining elements of The Tempest with gothic intrigue and charged, poignant romance, this is a sensuously involving novel. Teasing, erotic, suspenseful and expertly done.”—Daily Mail (UK)

“This cleverly written escapist novel looks set to turn Hickman into the next Philippa Gregory.”—Evening Standard (UK)

“A magical, engrossing read that takes us inside a sixteenth-century harem—and into a world populated by scheming, exotic characters. This absorbing novel of intrigue and forbidden love manages to be both cerebral and entertaining. With all the intricate detail of historical non-fiction and all the pace of romantic drama, this is beautifully written stuff.”—Glamour (UK)

“Dear reader, lie back on your ottoman and relax. Katie Hickman will take you to a magical land, the Topkapi harem in Istanbul in 1599. The intricate courts, alleys and secret staircases of the Topkapi are enticingly described and contribute to a plot full of headlong twists and turns. Luscious…exquisite...a box of Turkish delight. Enjoy!”           —The Independent (UK)

“Gorgeously vivid.”—Marie Claire (UK)

“Forbidden love, sailors and secrets—fasten your seat belts for Hickman’s period tome. Think Jane Austen meets Pirates of the Caribbean.”—In Style (UK)

“Remarkably convincing…[an] entertaining mystery whose plot twists can be as Byzantine as the setting. Hickman brings alive the sights, sounds and smells of Constantinople. Hickman has given us a Turkish delight of a novel that should win her legions of fans.”—Tatler (UK)

“The author has done some very thorough research…her style is light and clear and there are gems of descriptions. The books is dreamy and rose-scented, and reading it is like spending a delightful couple of hours in the company of one of the Sultan’s favourites.”—Literary Review (UK)

“This entrancing novel married a plot so thrilling you’ll miss your station stop. Insatiably gripping.”—Easy Living (UK)

“The Aviary Gate is a hugely enjoyable novel, multi-layered, vividly depicted and a fascinating story, filled with the colors, sights and scents of Constantinople in the 16th century. This story is at the same time fast moving, complex and deeply satisfying.”—Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat

“The Aviary Gate reminds us of the fact that Katie Hickman is first and foremost a vibrant story-teller who writes mainly because of the pure joy of weaving stories, be they historical or as in this case fictional accounts. And for that, I am very grateful to her.”—Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran

“Constantinople 1599 conjures images of exotic displays of wealth and beauty, deadly intrigue, power struggles and politics. The Aviary Gate delivers on all these, and adds a cast of fascinating diverse characters, a great story line and an unexpected but entirely satisfying end. A glorious feast for the imagination, very convincingly delivered.”—Nicola, Nicola’s Books, Ann Arbor, MI

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; 1st edition (May 27, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596914750
• ISBN-13: 978-1596914759
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,770,265 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing story of a young English captive in the Sultans harem, June 4, 2008

By 

Modern Blue Argonaut - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Aviary Gate: A Novel (Hardcover)

In The Aviary Gate by Katie Hickman, graduate student Elizabeth Staveley is researching captivity stories from the late 16th century when she comes across a four hundred year old manuscript tucked inside of a book in the Oriental Library Reading Room at Oxford University. Knowing the treasured, never before told story she is about to uncover, she transcribes the manuscript before turning it over to the library staff.

While tied up in a frustrating relationship with a suspected womanizer, Elizabeth takes off from Oxford and flies to Istanbul to further research the story of Celia Lamprey, the daughter of an English sea captain who dies at sea leaving her to eventually be sold into the harem of the Sultan of Constantinople. While a controversial member of the Sultans harem, she discovers that her fiancee, Paul Pindar, whom she was supposed to marry prior to being sold into captivity, is in fact in Constantinople as the secretary to the English ambassador to deliver a gift to the Sultan thus opening English trading opportunities.

The story is woven between the present day and the year 1599 in Constantinople (now present day Istanbul). The story of the secret life inside the harem has been well-researched and very intriguing, although the present day story of Elizabeth lacked a little intrigue. Other notable, fascinating characters in this book are the Valide Sultan (Sultan's mother), the black eunuch guards, and Jamal al-Andalus, an outstanding astronomer. Overall, this was a very rich, exotic, and interesting read, especially since I enjoy historical fiction.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Just So So, August 6, 2008

By 

Gwendolyn Dawson "Literary License" (Houston, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Aviary Gate: A Novel (Hardcover)

The Aviary Gate intertwines the story of modern Oxford researcher Elizabeth Staveley with the 400-year-old story of Celia Lamprey, a sea captain's daughter assumed to have died in a shipwreck but actually held as a concubine in the Sultan's harem in Constantinople. Celia's fiance, an English merchant, also happens to be in Constantinople serving as secretary to the British Embassy, and a rescue attempt ensues. Hickman recreates the world of the Sultan's harem in vivid detail, and this exotic setting is the best aspect of The Aviary Gate. The other nice touch is the ending. Without giving anything away, Hickman resolves the historical story of Celia and Paul with grace and restraint uncommon in many of the other historical books that are so popular right now. On the downside, Elizabeth and Celia are not particularly likeable or interesting as protagonists, though Celia shows more gumption and strength of character than Elizabeth, who continues to moon over an obviously commitment-phobic boyfriend. Also, some of the dialog in the historical story is overly modern and jarringly anachronistic. Overall, the interesting setting and the masterful ending make this book a worthwhile read.

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I was craving a book high and got a bad reaction to the story, June 6, 2008

By 

Lilly Flora "by Lilo Drandoff" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Aviary Gate: A Novel (Hardcover)

I'm not sure why I seem to be doomed to try and seek out books I really loved again, only by different authors and with different plots, like they've been reincarnated. I guess I'm chasing that experience you have when you find a really good book-the kind of high that leaves you envious of all the people who have yet to discover the treasure you have propped up in your lap. Yes, I admit it. I, Lilly Flora, am a story addict (drug of choice historical fiction.)

This is how I ended up with this book, despite the lukewarm reviews. I was hoping to find something similar to "The Fourth Queen" by Debbie Taylor (so wonderful!) and got instead some kind of weird cross between "The Secret History of the Pink Carnation" by Lauren Willig (decent) and "Harem" by Dora Levy Mossanen ( so horrible and with the incest and child abuses.)

"The Aviary Gate" is a novel with two stories. One is set in the modern day, starring Elizabeth, a grad student chasing down captivity narratives for a philosophy thesis when she comes across a fragment of a document relating to a Celia Lamprey who was presumed to have drowned in a shipwreck but may have actually survived to be sold as a slave to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Elizabeth has an intuition about the fragment and a feeling about the story (and a hateful boyfriend to get away from) so she heads to Istanbul to see what she can see.

The other half of the novel is the story of Celia in 1559, locked behind the harem gates in the Empire's capital with one other survivor of her attacked ship, a young nun named Annette and Celia's fiancé Paul, a merchant who has been in Constantinople on a diplomatic mission which seems to consist of waiting for a suitably impressive gift to give to the Sultan to arrive from England so trading rights may be secured. Needless to say, neither one of the lovebirds knows the other is there....but then through an almost impossible once in a lifetime lucky break Paul finds out. Unfortunately, Celia's current position means she might as well be dead as she belongs solely to the Sultan and there is no way out.

Will Paul and Celia find each other? Will Celia escape the harem? Will the scandals and secrets and plots in the harem ever make sense to the reader? Will Elizabeth do any actual research or just get mystic feelings about the past? Will she get over her crappy boyfriend?

They say it's not good to mix certain drugs together and I think the same applies to books. Though I'm sure the plot of this novel was an original idea, and not a bad one at that, Katie Hickman wrote a book about white women in harems, which my book lust sensors picked up on but it affected my brain like a bad mix of a book I loved (The Fourth Queen) and one I pretty much hated ("Harem.") Add that in to a plot that's going nowhere for the first two hundred pages, a bunch of obscure references to nightingales which eventually turns out to be not nearly as important as one thinks and character reactions that make no sense and you get....well a book I'll never be addicted to.

Despite wanting to love it (oh so much) in the end I didn't even like "The Aviary Gate."

Long story short, I wouldn't prescribe this book to anyone (unless maybe you enjoyed "Harem). Two stars.