There are books that enlarge the mind, there are books that enrich the soul, but rarely comes a book so beautifully-written and profound that it manages to do both

The most daring history book of the year … told in the present tense with all the dash and flair of a novel. The research is faultless: we are immersed … it brilliantly conveys a sense of colour and momentum, placing the reader in the thick of the action. Unforgettable

This is history, but not as we know it. It is non-fiction posing as a novel, rich in incident and cinematic detail … it’s tremendous

An urgent, immersive, present-tense gallop … the book reads as a non-fiction novel … cinematically vivid tableaux … Each spangled scene … rests on a solid foundation in the primary sources … De Bellaigue enriches his storytelling with the colourful, meticulous dispatches of its traders, envoys and spies … behind the bejewelled descriptive prose a thumping pulse of action tugs us through … de Bellaigue’s glittering, deft and often witty prose adds pleasure to each page

Luminous, erudite … a gripping account that evokes an epic poem, saga or ‘book of kings’ … It is as immersive as the blurb claims, conjuring the world of the eastern Mediterranean, Anatolia and south-eastern Europe in the early 16th century with the limpid clarity of the many gems that stud its pages … Even more than the detail, it is the characters that intrigue and often inspire … The book leaves the reader with Suleiman truly magnificent

Mesmerising . . . steeped in the sensuous detail of banquet and ceremony, stratagem and conspiracy

A brilliantly written account of the Ottoman empire in all its opulence and brutality. Rich in colourful historical anecdotes, de Bellaigue brings 16th-century statecraft vividly alive, and offers a chilling insight into the ruthlessness and loneliness of one of the most powerful men of the age

A vivid, cinematic account of the rise of Suleyman the Magnificent … de Bellaigue follows with exhilarating clarity and suspense the era’s broader battles across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, and the individual trajectories – grand ambitions, rivalries, betrayals – of these outsiders in Suleyman’s court, a place rife with intrigue and back-stabbing, rich with colourful characters

Those lucky readers who come to Christopher de Bellaigue’s book in proximity to reading Mantel can suddenly have a new panel thrown open to them like an unfolding altarpiece … all written in the present tense. This creates the obvious sense of liveliness and urgency … Bellaigue sets about the task with such confidence and skill that it works … a dazzling and dark work. Witty and often wise, it speaks to the frailties and the precarity of power

Vivid and compelling … He presents his story like a novel, but it is not fiction; every detail has been diligently researched, for example by perusing diaries in difficult Venetian dialect … Whether he is describing a lavish dinner for Italian merchants on the Bosporus, the stately progress of Suleiman’s armies through the Balkans or a mass circumcision, he has an eye for the colourful, absurd and ironic … As this book shows, living in the penumbra of such supreme power can be seductive and intoxicating. But the end of the story is often tragic