This book tells a story of 16th century Istanbul, providing insights into a world new to me. I very much enjoyed the middle third of the book; and slogged through to the end. The amount of detail the author provides can be exhausting. Unfortunately, there are no illustrations in a book all about miniaturists and illuminated books, which would have helped! We had a good discussion of the book. More than half our book club had not finished the book by the time of our meeting.