The Legacy of Grazia dei Rossi
Book 2
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Set in sixteenth-century Istanbul during the illustrious Ottoman Empire, The Legacy of Grazia dei Rossi chronicles the fate of Grazia’s son, Danilo, and his forbidden love affair with Princess Saida, the Sultan’s beloved daughter.
Judah del Medigo, Jewish physician to the Sultan at the Ottoman court and husband of Grazia dei Rossi, has been misinformed that his son, Danilo, perished at sea on the way to Istanbul. When the two are eventually reunited, Judah’s first thought is to resign from the Sultan’s service to devote himself to his son’s recovery. But the Great Suleiman is not about to give up his valued Chief Body Physician. A ruler accustomed to getting his way, the Sultan proposes a bargain: he offers the boy a place in the harem school for royal children, plus the services of his own mother as guardian while the doctor is absent during campaign season in Baghdad. It is an opportunity that Judah cannot deny his son.
Danilo is assigned as his tutor the princess Saida, the Sultan’s beloved daughter. At first the two resent each other deeply. But as Danilo and Saida approach adulthood they fall in love and begin a forbidden romance. Fate has decreed that Saida will marry a husband of the Sultan’s choosing, and Danilo will return to Italy to study medicine just as his father did. For a princess preparing for marriage, a dalliance with an unrelated male would cast a stain on the Sultan’s honour that could only be avenged by death…
A tantalizing look at life in the Ottoman court, The Legacy of Grazia dei Rossi is a sweeping historical romance and the long-awaited follow-up to the international sensation The Secret Book of Grazia dei Rossi.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Parks's strong sequel to The Secret Book of Grazia dei Rossi tells the story of Grazia's son, Danilo, and his clandestine affair with Saida, a daughter of Suleiman the Magnificent. In Istanbul at the height of the Ottoman Empire, Judah del Medigo, Grazia's husband and the sultan's physician, learning that his wife has perished at sea and their son was captured by pirates. Danilo is ransomed and returned to his father, and the sultan offers the boy a place at the harem school for royal children, where he meets Saida. Their close friendship blossoms into romance, but they must part Danilo for the sultan's exclusive school for pages and then as a member of his entourage, and Saida for the harem and preparations for an arranged marriage. An epistolary section of the novel is by far the richest, as Danilo recounts to his father his efforts to entertain the sultan with stories of Alexander the Great. The story deepens as the romantic story line mingles with personal and political intrigue. Rich in historical detail, though perhaps weaker in characterization, this love story is a must-read for Parks's fans.
