The Lion House

June 1, 2022

Cofounder of the Centre for Army Leadership, British Army, at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Clark weaves together the lives and careers of three consequential Commanders in World War II: U.S. general George Patton, British field marshal Bernard Montgomery, and German field marshal Erwin Rommel. In The Lion House, Orwell Prize--winning historian/journalist de Bellaigue chronicles the rule of Suleyman the Magnificent, the powerful 16th-century sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from the perspectives of those closest to him, e.g., an enslaved Greek turned Grand Vizier and a Russian consort turned beloved wife (15,000-copy first printing). From No. 1 New York Times best-selling Drury and Clavin (e.g., Blood and Treasure), The Last Hill re-creates the efforts of "Rudder's Rangers"--an elite U.S. Army battalion--to take and hold Hill 400 in Germany (200,000-copy first printing). Joined by freelance investigative journalist Ashworth, popular historian Everitt (Cicero, The Rise of Rome) rethinks Nero, the magnet-for-trouble populist ruler who proved to be the last of the Caesars. In The Rebel and the Kingdom, Pulitzer Prize finalist Hope (Blood and Oil) tracks the activism of Adrian Hong, who abandoned his Yale studies in the early 2000s to help usher North Korean asylum seekers to safety and has become increasingly involved in efforts to track and oppose North Korea's government, culminating in an alleged raid on Madrid's North Korean Embassy in 2019. Author of the multi-best-booked, New York Times best-selling The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt, Wilkinson commemorates the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb by chronicling 100 key artifacts, including the silver-shiny Tutankhamun's Trumpet.

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 15, 2022
An eloquent historical investigation of a legendary ruler. Suleyman I (the Magnificent), sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 until his death in 1566, enjoyed a long and opulent reign during a time of much turmoil in 16th-century Europe. Known to the Turks as "the law-giver," he engaged in numerous military campaigns and expanded the borders of the empire considerably, though his ambitions in this regard were secondary to the security of the realm. De Bellaigue, a noted historian, linguist, and journalist with a background in Islamic studies and Middle East reportage, does not render a scholarly biography of Suleyman but rather a series of interwoven character studies that set him against the two greatest ministers in the formative portion of his reign: Ibrahim Pasha, who became the sultan's intimate friend, grand vizier, and commander of his armies; and Alvise Gritti, son of the Doge of Venice, an opportunistic Christian whose Machiavellian dealings catapulted him to the No. 3 position of power in the empire. The narrative is dominated by personal relationships, shifting alliances, intrigues, ambitions, betrayals, meteoric ascents, and precipitous falls. While the author offers sumptuous detail on the vast wealth and extravagance of the "Golden Age" Ottoman court and its beneficiaries, he devotes comparatively little space to Suleyman's notable political and judicial reforms--nor to the specifics of the sultan's patronage of the arts and culture apart from individual artisanship and grandiose display. But these would develop over time and seem almost incidental to de Bellaigue's successful narrative approach. He is often writing as if in real time, and it is fitting that the sections of the book are called "acts," for the writing has the quality and immediacy (if not the structure) of a Shakespearean play. The author includes a few hand-drawn maps and a section entitled "Persons of the drama," both of which help orient readers. A vivid, you-are-there re-creation of time and place populated with well-delineated characters.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 26, 2022
Historian and journalist de Bellaigue (Rebel Land) delivers an intricate and evocative account of 16th-century Ottoman ruler Suleyman I’s rise to power. The son of Selim I, who conquered the Mamluk Sultanate in 1517 and declared himself Caliph, or “leader of the world’s Muslims,” Suleyman survived his father’s assassination attempt via poison-dipped robe and became sultan after Selim’s death in 1520. De Bellaigue sheds light on the relationship between Suleyman and his intimate friend and adviser, the Grand Vizier Ibrahim, a former Christian slave who made the fatal mistake of “believ himself to be indispensable.” Also spotlighted are Suleyman’s mother, Hafsa, who stopped him from trying on the poisoned robe, and Hurrem, the shrewd Ruthenian slave and concubine who became his wife. Excerpts from Hurrem’s letters provide an intimate look into court life and glimpses of Suleyman’s personality, but his motivations and the origins of his willingness to overturn tradition remain somewhat mysterious. Still, de Bellaigue’s punchy, present-tense prose and use of imagined dialogue endow the complex power plays and diplomatic intrigues with a sense of immediacy, and though the narrative ends 30 years before Suleyman’s death and doesn’t include many of his most significant accomplishments, the threat he posed to European dynasties is made clear. This is an incisive portrait of a ruler on the cusp of greatness.