Yashim in America

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Speaking of covers… here’s the US edition, out in hardback on March 3rd – tomorrow!

In The Bellini Card Yashim’s old friend Palewski, the Polish ambassador in Istanbul, goes to Venice on the trail of a lost portrait of Mehmed II.

For safety’s sake he presents himself as an American dealer, buying Old Masters for millionaires across the Atlantic. Why? Because nobody in 1840 Venice really knew what an American might be like. 

Popi Eletro dreams of selling his Canalettos to a land of timber and furs. Count Barbieri, on the other hand, believes that New York might be the modern Venice: ‘It takes a wealthy and energetic commercial city to spawn rich men,’ he says, ‘who then vie with each other to call out what is beautiful.’

Dangerous ground for them, of course.

For anyone browsing from the US or Holland, feel free to go back to my posts in April 2008, when I began this blog to coincide with the UK publication. The Janissary Tree came out first – by a matter of days – in the USA, but the rift in schedules has widened since then. I’m not sure why, exactly. For The Evil Eye next year, it’ll be simultaneous. 

That was my request. Sometimes it’s better to have more time. You can fill it, of course, with everything but writing. Gardening and  cooking and having friends around. Children, always. Moving house. Walking on a beach. And don’t forget worrying as an occupation.

0 thoughts on “Yashim in America

  1. Donald Knaub

    I just finished the Bellini Card and thoroughly enjoyed it, as I have your other novels. Compelling and enjoyable reading. I look forward to more adventures of Yashim.

    Reply
  2. Ownie

    Waited til last week for my Canadian library to get a copy. Was the first reader on the list. Couldn’t be happier. Long live Yashim.

    Reply
  3. dwstiles

    just reading it, been a fan since book1—background in history and archaeology–fell in love with Istanbul in the early 70s while visiting there by accident. read anything and everything about the place and its history. love historical based mysteries even alt/hist sifi ones–especially set in the middleast/levant.

    Yashim is among the very best

    found this site by trying to find out what the SandReckoner pattern is via Google

    what/when is the next book?

    Reply
  4. Malcolm Stewart

    Some years ago, I made up the name Sand Reckoner’s Diagram for a device that features in this book and have presented lectures on it to RILKO (Research into Lost Knowledge Organisation) in London, at the Theosophical Society in London, at a number of other centres and halls in the UK, Germany and Spain. The device itself featured prominently in the eight “Syncrysta” publications that I put out in the late nineties. Apparently someone in Japan has picked up on the name and it is now going the rounds. So – in November – look out for the fruit of 35 years research on that device in a book called “Patterns of Eternity – Sacred Geometry and Starcut Diagram” – my original title for my book was “The Sand Reckoner’s Diagram” – but it was thought too obscure! Ironic since now that name is running around disassociated from the work that brought it to birth.

    Reply
  5. Giorgio Tosi

    I just finished reading “The Bellini Card”.
    Excellent novel, I had such a great time reading it…
    Being grown up in Venice I was amazed to rediscover some of the feeling and nuances you can get in the city. I’m hoping my friend Yashim comes back soon with a new adventure.

    Reply
    1. thebellinicard Post author

      Thank you, Giorgio – I’m so glad you found faithful echoes of your city in The Bellini Card.
      Yashim is indeed on his next case: it is called An Evil Eye. Should be out next Summer….

      Reply
  6. David Emery

    My wife and I fought over the book, and she won. She finished it Friday, I finished it today.

    This time last year we were on our (first) trip to Istanbul. So we’re ready to head back any time.

    Can we have more of Carla, please?

    Reply
    1. thebellinicard Post author

      Delighted to hear that marital harmony has been maintained in the time-worn manner. As for Carla – have you met Eugenie? Or Amelie, for that matter (my father’s own preference)? They’re from The Janissary Tree and the Snake Stone respectively.
      See you in Istanbul!

      Reply
  7. Beatrice Charnley

    Stumbled on this site whilst researching the sand reckoner’s diagram. My daughter introduced my husband and I to the books. We have all three. Wonderful read. Love the history and now want to know more about the Ottoman empire and their legacy. Prefer Amelie. Would love to meet in Istanbul!

    Reply

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