[FJT]∎ Read Gratis The Sheen on the Silk Anne Perry 9780345500656 Books

The Sheen on the Silk Anne Perry 9780345500656 Books

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The Sheen on the Silk Anne Perry 9780345500656 Books

Anne Perry really knows what she's doing when it comes to luring the reader into the world of her novel. Right away we are immersed in the world of thirteenth century Byzantium with its battered splendor, its intricate, multi-layered society and its constantly shifting politics as the Byzantine Empire loses literal and figurative ground to incursions from Rome and the burgeoning European powers, while at the same time the forces of Islam are gathering strength. Perry pulls out all the stops in creating this lush, complex backdrop as she introduces us to Ana, a widow from Nicea who is trained as a physician and has come to the great city to prove the innocence of her beloved brother. To achieve the freedom and mobility she needs to move about unencumbered in Byzantine society, Ana passes herself off as a eunuch, with the help of her two loyal, though not always agreeable servants. Ana's goals, along with those of the rest of Perry's roster of vivid characters that populate this sprawling novel, weave inextricably with the fate of Byzantium as personal quests and betrayals are echoed and magnified by the tensions between its older, subtler world view and the obdurate might of Rome. I was hooked quickly and happily seduced by the exotic locale and the appropriately larger-than-life characters. While the prose sometimes veers toward the purple — there are an awful lot of barrel-chested men and women with winged eyebrows — it's a compelling read, as satisfying if no deeper than a well-produced TV historical miniseries. If you like literary excursions into exotic pasts, you'll be richly rewarded.


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The Sheen on the Silk Anne Perry 9780345500656 Books Reviews

The author makes history fascinating, her research is thorough and factual. This was a book that made me read more carefully and encouraged me to check on the historical facts, so I read other information in addition to the book. Anne Perry is a gifted author, I enjoy reading her different books.
This is the first book I have read by this author and actually chose to read it because it is about one of my most favorite places in the world--Instanbul. Sadly my knowledge of the history of that region is lacking and this book filled me in a piece I was clueless about.

The Roman Catholic Pope wants to eliminate the Greek Orthodox Church. However the leadership in Istanbul is weak, the borders are shrinking and attack by Italy/the Vatican is inevitable. There is one woman, Zoe Chrysaphes, who has not forgotten the last crusade and the carnage left by the Roman Catholic Christians. She is vengeful, resourceful, manipulative and determined that this will not happen again under her watch. However she is not the Sultan's wife but she does hold some power over him--WHY?

In pops the protaganist, Anna Zarides, on a quest to find out who framed her twin brother for murder and who the actual murderer is...Anna poses as an eunich that practices medicine. She is exceptional at her job and ends up treating many powerful people in Instanbul including the Sultan, his eunichs and Zoe.

Then flitting through the story are two Vatican Priests in charge of diplomatic resolution between Rome and Instanbul. They are diverse in their approaches and subversive in their means.

Arriving on the scene is Anna's Italian love interest who is working to help fund his family's coffers by spying on what is happening in Instanbul and then making boats to furnish the impending war.

Books that weave characters in and out of stories do not scare me, in fact I generally love them and I liked this. Before I could get bored with Anna, the book shifts to Zoe, and before Zoe really pisses me off the book shifts to the Vatican.

There were also themes in this book that I loved and themes are not often found in mystery books. First of all, who is really the good guy and who is really the bad guy and how many shades of gray are there in between those two definitions? Secondly what is the deal of fighting for religion? I loved watching Anna's religious growth and change. Also there is the third gender theme of being an eunich-someone without a sexuality and its expectations and challenges.

People are complaining that Anna was boring but actually I feel that she was fairly portrayed as the invisible person that in that society an eunich represented. Anna had a goal. The result of Anna's quest is different than what you would expect. Anna had to navigate a culture she was not familiar with.

I loved the descriptions of silk...I am one of those people who love the feel of fine fabric and I appreciate the work taken in creating beautiful silk products.

This is an enjoyable book and worth reading. I would love for Anne Perry to have stretched this book into a series of books with greater secondary character development.
This is one of those books where you read the first chapter and think, "Oh, how wonderful--I've found another book I can look forward to reading and in which I can lose myself and enter another world." The Sheen on the Silk is Anne Perry's masterpiece--a great historical novel set in the 1200s in Constantinople (with excursions to Venice, Sicily, Jerusalem, and Mount Sinai). The book tells of Anna Lascaris, a woman of Nicea and a physician, who disguises herself as a eunuch and moves with her two servants to Constantinople, where she hopes to prove her brother, Justinian, innocent of a murder for which he has been exiled to a monastery on Mount Sinai. Perry creates many memorable characters--Anna, the palace eunuch Nicephoras, Jewish physician Avram Shachar, Venetian ship's captain Giulano Dandolo, papal legate Bishop Enrico Palombara, Orthodox Bishop Constantine, and especially Anna's sometime patient and dangerously self-interested helper and adversary, Zoe Chrysaphos, a woman you are likely to remember long after finishing the book. Perry also evokes the sights of thirteenth-century Constantinople in a beautiful way, as well as the details of Anna's life and those of the people she treats (and tries to pump for information about her brother). The story is gripping--Perry weaves the everyday with important events and you really care about the characters and have hope for the way things will resolve themselves.

You may be familiar with Anne Perry's Victorian mysteries featuring Charlotte and Thomas Pitt and (even better) William Monk and Hester Latterly. They're good, but The Sheen on the Silk outshines them all. The title metaphor refers to the changing perspectives one gains from seeing things in a different light, whether the changing colors of a piece of fabric, the hidden face of ambition in one who appears to be devoted to service, or the gender-crossing characteristics of a eunuch. This is a terrific book. Highly recommended.
Anne Perry really knows what she's doing when it comes to luring the reader into the world of her novel. Right away we are immersed in the world of thirteenth century Byzantium with its battered splendor, its intricate, multi-layered society and its constantly shifting politics as the Byzantine Empire loses literal and figurative ground to incursions from Rome and the burgeoning European powers, while at the same time the forces of Islam are gathering strength. Perry pulls out all the stops in creating this lush, complex backdrop as she introduces us to Ana, a widow from Nicea who is trained as a physician and has come to the great city to prove the innocence of her beloved brother. To achieve the freedom and mobility she needs to move about unencumbered in Byzantine society, Ana passes herself off as a eunuch, with the help of her two loyal, though not always agreeable servants. Ana's goals, along with those of the rest of Perry's roster of vivid characters that populate this sprawling novel, weave inextricably with the fate of Byzantium as personal quests and betrayals are echoed and magnified by the tensions between its older, subtler world view and the obdurate might of Rome. I was hooked quickly and happily seduced by the exotic locale and the appropriately larger-than-life characters. While the prose sometimes veers toward the purple — there are an awful lot of barrel-chested men and women with winged eyebrows — it's a compelling read, as satisfying if no deeper than a well-produced TV historical miniseries. If you like literary excursions into exotic pasts, you'll be richly rewarded.