Reading a novel by Arthur Phillips is, for me, always an intellectual treat. Although his books purport to be about one thing, subject, or time, it turns out that while one may be set in Victorian England or among Egyptologists hunting for ancient tombs, the plot is merely the lens through which Phillips asks the more important questions: What is true? When does ambition become madness? Why did it happen this way, or did it? In other words, Phillips' novels are deeper than they first appear, and...

Character-driven historical fiction at its best, showing Elizabethan England and King James' Scotland through the eyes of the ultimate outsider, Mahmoud Ezzedine, a doctor from the court of the Ottoman Sultan. Fate has stranded him in a cold, primitive land 'at the edge of the world', a 'gift' passed from royal hand to royal hand, seemingly until he dies. Ezzedine is a deeply humane, complex man, afraid to remember or to forget his true self, while he fashions himself into a Protestant Englishma...

The king at the edge of the world is King James VI, heir apparent to Queen Elizabeth I who, nearing death, will soon end her childless reign with no other clear successor. First, however, it must be determined that King James is not secretly a Catholic, a papist like his mother, Mary Queen of Scots. Thus, the espionage begins and with a most unlikely spy left to make the crucial determination. The novel is a witty, philosophical look at religion, a satirical look at the people and the puppet mas...

I won an ARC from a Goodreads Giveaway. The beginning was very slow, and I almost stopped reading this book. Once the main storyline picked up as more characters were introduced, the plot became difficult to follow, and the ending was left unresolved (which may or may not have been the whole point of this story).

DNF @ 27%Really bored. Doesn't hold my interest.

A very interesting premise, but unfortunately a very dry execution.

This was not the right book for me. I can’t summon any interest in figuring out whether someone is Protestant or Catholic.

Centuries from now, when our amphibian descendants look back at this contentious era, they may have trouble understanding what exactly we were arguing about.I first realized this when I was teaching high school and saw my students struggling to fathom the theological disputes of the Reformation. To most of those smart but unchurched adolescents, the distinction between, say, being saved by grace or saved by works seemed obscure — and, in any case, a thin excuse to butcher fellow Christians in th...

This may be jumping the gun a bit, but even as I preview The King at the Edge of the World in November of 2019, I feel certain that it will wind up on my "Best Books of 2020" list. The King at the Edge of the World works as historical fiction, but it also works as a novel exploring issues of identity and the myriad possible lives any individual might live.Mahmoud Ezzedine is a physician on a diplomatic mission from the Ottoman Empire to the England of Elizabeth I. Though technically a free man,

Wry & bittersweet historical fiction of sophisticated, educated Dr. Mahmoud Ezzedine, banished from his beloved Constantinople and forced to live among the stinking yahoos of Queen Elizabeth I's court.Plot movement centers on political intrigue. But the author's really more interested in how Dr. Ezzedine hangs on to his sanity and dignity while he has so *very* little control over the events of his life.So, a good book for 2021.10 hours, 153 wpm

This book is Depressing, with a capital "D." It is firmly literary historical fiction, and I suspect that the author commits a cardinal sin with this book: he is trying to poke fun at his characters with the reader. There is a fine line between writing a meta novel and writing a meta novel that knows it's a meta novel. Where is that line? I don't know, but this novel crosses it. Also, when I was trying to describe this book to my long-suffering husband, I said it was "a book written by a man for...

3.5 stars - It was really good.He had spent a decade wringing desire and hope from his heart, a treatment as scarring as fire, and only possible in the isolation of Cumberland, where no rumor reached him, where no memory could be triggered by a face or a word, where even the hope of a letter in either direction was ridiculous. Matthew Thatcher had committed the slow murder of hope or, indistinguishably, watched in helpless torments as it committed suicide. But at last it was done. Hope lay at hi...

I'm going back and forth between 4 and 5. It's a really enjoyable book: Playful, smart, a great story, well-plotted... I actually listened to certain chapters a second time after finishing the book to see (hear) if I remembered things right or if I missed something. I did -- a couple of things in fact, and I liked the book even more after learning what I'd missed. Several plot points were deliberately left a little unclear, a feature I really enjoyed but other readers might find frustrating. Sti...

Inspiration is a cruel and moody mistress and this book is a perfect example of that. Idea is absolutely fabulous, I dare you to read the description and not find it interesting. Execution however is not as good as I would expect it be from "One of the best writers in America" (The Washington Post). There are fragments in this book that are almost perfect and pieces that are almost unreadable. You are swinging up and down, jumping from good parts to really bad ones so frequently that the beginni...

Absolutely loved this book until the ending which made me throw it across the room. Probably still 4 stars but I’m too mad at it right now! I was completely into this, flying through the final pages, and then just found the ending deeply unsatisfying even while being able to appreciate what the author was doing.

*I won this book through goodreads' first reads.I really hate giving up on a book I won through a giveaway, because it's always possible that a weak start can turn in to a fabulous book. And since I'm definitely reviewing a giveaway book I want to give it its best chance. But for this one . . . for the second time ever . . . well . . . Okay, let's just be blunt. After ten days I'm barely past 100 pages. This book just Could. Not. Hold. My. Attention.I can't put my finger on why. I love historica...

Had a lot of travel time this week so I got to really live head-down in this one, which was great fun—the story of a Muslim physician from Constantinople stranded in late-16th-century England at the time of Elizabeth I's decline and the potential rise of Scotland's James VI, with the crucial question being whether or not he was a Catholic. The story involves much spying and counter-spying to that effect, and the fact that you know how it ends—that he becomes James I of England—doesn't take away

Elizabethan England is one of my favorite historical eras and this novel offers a fascinating perspective of the iconic period through the eyes of a Muslim doctor sent to England by the sultan as part of a diplomatic mission. Finding himself trapped after the embassy returns home, Mahmoud Ezzedine does his best to accept the life he has and eventually finds himself playing a role in the accession of James of Scotland to the Virgin Queen's throne. An interesting read, which includes a perspective...

I'll call this a 3.49 star book. The tale of an Ottoman physician whom intrigue traps in Elizabethan England is an easy four stars: fresh, engaging, historically compelling and psychologically acute. I'd have loved to spend 269 pages inside the head of dr. Matthew Thatcher, formerly Mahmoud Ezzedine, fighting and failing to forget the warm winds of Constantinople while trapped inside the dingy, foul-smelling Edinburgh castle of King James VI, having been manipulated into spying upon the fickle,

Due to reading the description of this thankfully I knew what the book was about but had I not read anything I might have given up halfway through.Things just didn't seem to be happening until about a hundred and fifty pages in and that is a exceptionally long time to keep reading.However,I kept going with visions of my Elizabethan spies, King James VI,Catholic,Protestant wars,Elizabeth I,plots,intrigue and ultimately was rewarded.Perhaps not as well written as I would have liked but overall I f...