The Dervish

The first Arab Spring: revolution and passion seethe and erupt in this action-packed romance during the dying days of the Ottoman Empire. This is the dramatic culmination of Kazan's acclaimed novel Halide's Gift, about which Publishers Weekly wrote: Its portrayal of an Islamic world on the brink of change is carefully detailed and convincing. The Washington Post called it Engrossing... and Booklist said, Kazan has written a politically intriguing and uniquely stylized novel with a subject matter that is refreshingly untrodden. A master of Turkish studies, she conveys this story with the mystique of billowing incense. The Dervish will set readers' heads whirling with its powerful story of political and social power plays. When an American woman of an earlier era gets caught up in the various, competing factions of an Eastern land under military occupation, the suspense grows a la Le Carre, as do the parallels to the latest news flashes from our own times of Mid East turmoil. Kazan's novel takes us intimately behind the veil, to see and experience the Ottoman world, to let us view, from the other side, how the cultural and political antagonisms between the Occident and the Orient of the past century look. There are no easy villains or heroes in this story. Only ardent, unforgettable characters.