When a young Italian scholar is captured by the Turkish fleet and brought to Istanbul, he becomes the slave of an erudite man who could pass for his twin."Un joven cientf?ico italiano es capturado por piratas cuando viaja de Venecia a Np?oles. Poco despuš es vendido como esclavo a un sabio turco deseoso de conocer los avances cientf?icos de Occidente. Ambientada en la Turqua? del siglo XVII, El castillo blanco cuenta la extraordinaria historia de estos dos hombres, que curiosamente guardan un gran parecido fs?ico. Una fascinante exploracin? de la identidad, del fatd?ico pulso entre tradicin? y modernidad, y del destino del intelectual a travš de la relacin? que surge entre ambos personajes."--… (más)
From a Turkish writer who has been compared with Borges, Nabokov, and DeLillo comes a dazzling novel that is at once a captivating work of historical fiction and a sinuous treatise on the enigma of identity and the relations between East and West.
Un sabio turco, deseoso de conocer los avances cientÃficos de Occidente, compra a un joven cientÃfico veneciano que ha sido capturado en las costas mediterráneas y está siendo vendido en el mercado de Estambul. El asombroso parecido fÃsico entre amo y esclavo les permite poner sus muchos talentos e ingenio al servicio del sultán. ( )
To imagine that a person who intrigues us has access to a way of life unknown and all the more attractive for its mystery, to believe that we will begin to live only through the love of that person – what else is this but the birth of great passion?
– Marcel Proust, from the mistranslation of Y. K. Karaosmanoglu
For Nilgun Darvinoglu a loving sister (1961–1980)
Primeras palabras
We were sailing from Venice to Naples when the Turkish fleet appeared.
I found this manuscript in 1982 in that forgotten 'archive' attached to the governot's office in Gebze that I used to rummage through for a week each summer, at the bottom of a dusty chest stuffed to overflowing with imperial decrees, title deeds, court registers and tax rolls. (Preface)
When a young Italian scholar is captured by the Turkish fleet and brought to Istanbul, he becomes the slave of an erudite man who could pass for his twin."Un joven cientf?ico italiano es capturado por piratas cuando viaja de Venecia a Np?oles. Poco despuš es vendido como esclavo a un sabio turco deseoso de conocer los avances cientf?icos de Occidente. Ambientada en la Turqua? del siglo XVII, El castillo blanco cuenta la extraordinaria historia de estos dos hombres, que curiosamente guardan un gran parecido fs?ico. Una fascinante exploracin? de la identidad, del fatd?ico pulso entre tradicin? y modernidad, y del destino del intelectual a travš de la relacin? que surge entre ambos personajes."--