Description:
"Altun's prose has a dreamlike urgency"--John Ashbery
Fighting the Ottoman invaders in Constantinople, Emperor Constantine XI was killed--his body never found.
Legend has it that he escaped in a Genoese ship, cheating certain death at the hands of the Turks and earning himself the title of Immortal Emperor.
Five centuries after his disappearance, three mysterious men contact a young professor living in Istanbul. Members of a secret sect, they have guarded the Immortal Emperor's will for generations. They tell him that he is the next emperor in line and that in order to take possession of his fortune he must carry out his ancestor's last wishes.
What follows is his journey to the heart of a mystery of epic historical significance.
Selçuk Altun was born in Artvin, Turkey in 1950. He is a retired banking executive, a bibliophile and philanthropist. His novels, Songs My Mother Never Taught Me and Many and Many a Year Ago, were listed amongst the top one hundred translated crime fiction by the International Association of Crime Writers. He lives in Istanbul, Turkey.
Review Quotes:
"Readers tired of the endless Da Vinci Code knockoffs will find Altun's variation on the theme a refreshing one. Altun (Songs My Mother Never Taught Me) beautifully incorporates details about the Byzantine Empire less familiar to Western audiences, as well as healthy injections of wry humor, into this riveting escapade." Publishers Weekly
New Pages.com "The novel, translated from Turkish by Clifford and Selhan Endres, is punctuated by the literate wit of the author, whose extraordinary range of references extends from ancient authors to modern crime fiction. This is a hugely enjoyable crash-course in imperial bloodbaths, plus a travelogue, interwoven with snippets of poetry." The Independent, UK