1901. Night draws in.With the stealth of a spy vessel, the royal ship Azizye approaches the famous vistas of Mingheria.'An emerald build of pink stone'. The 29th state of the ailing Ottoman Empire.The ship carries Princess Pakize, the daughter of a deposed sultan, her doctor husband, and the Royal Chemist, Bonkowski Pasha. Each of them holds a separate mission. Not all of them will survive the weeks ahead. Because Mingheria is on the cusp of catastrophe. There are rumours of plague - rumours some in power will try to suppress.Plague is not the only killer.Soon, the eyes of the world will turn to this ancient island, where the future of a fragile empire is at stake, in a rich and epic mystery of passion, fear, scandal and murder, from one of history's master storytellers.

Orhan Pamuk is the author of many celebrated books of fiction, nonfiction, and photography. In 2003 he won the IMPAC prize for My Name is Red, and in 2006 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.Ekin Oklap was born in Turkey, and grew up in Italy. She translates from Turkish and Italian, and currently lives in London. As a translator, she was shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker International Prize.