Islam Quintet 3: The Stone Woman

Description

Each year, when the weather in Istanbul becomes unbearable, the family of Iskender Pasha, a re-tired Ottoman notable, retires to its summer palace overlooking the Sea of Marmara. It is 1899 and the last great Islamic empire is in serious trouble. A former tutor poses a question which the family has been refusing to confront for almost a century: ‘Your Ottoman Empire is like a drunken prostitute, neither knowing nor caring who will take her next. Do I exaggerate, Memed?’ The history of Iskender Pasha’s family mirrors the growing degeneration of the Empire they have served for the last five hundred years. This passionate story of masters and servants, school-teachers and painters, is marked by jealousies, vendettas and, with the decay of the Empire, a new generation which is deeply hostile to the half-truths and myths of the ‘golden days.’

The Stone Woman is the third novel of Tariq Ali’s ‘Islam Quartet’. Like its predecessors–Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree and The Book of Saladin–its power lies both in the story-telling and the challenge it poses to stereotyped images of life under Islam.

Author Biography

Tariq Ali (b. 1943) is an author, journalist, and filmmaker. He was born and raised in Lahore where he became politically active in his teens. He rose to prominence during the Vietnam War when he engaged in debates against the war with the likes of Henry Kissinger and Michael Stewart. Highly critical of the US and Israeli foreign policies, he has to his credit a number of nonfiction books on politics and has also long been associated with the New Left Review. He has also written many bestselling novels including Islam Quintet. Currently, he lives in England.