The Snake Stone: A Novel

been repaired with thin iron staples. He’d seen them both before. Water and salt: cup and plate. This much, at least, even Grigor could not have guessed. He remembered the relief in Grigor’s voice: for old times’ sake.

“I spent a week with some people who thought they knew exactly where the relics were,” he said, turning to the valide. “They put it together out of old books.”

And Grigor had believed them, hadn’t he? Raised the alarm. Condemned men to death.

The valide sniffed. “When we get back to the apartments, I think I shall ask you to read to me a little. Monsieur Stendhal.” She put out her stick and got to her feet. “It’s cold in here.”

He took her arm, and they went slowly out of the old church. In the shade of the portico, the valide put up her hands to adjust her veil.

“Your friends—I suppose they were very disappointed, non?”

Yashim cocked his head. “Disappointed? I think you could say that. One of them, in fact, wound up dead.”

“Well, well, Yashim. I’m sure you will want to talk about it. It just goes to show that you can’t believe everything that you read in books, n’est-ce pas?”

She dropped her veil, and they passed out together from the shade into the sun, leaning close together like old friends.

Also by Jason Goodwin

Fiction

The Janissary Tree

Nonfiction

A Time for Tea:

Travels Through China and India in Search of Tea

On Foot to the Golden Horn:

A Walk to Istanbul

Lords of the Horizons:

A History of the Ottoman Empire

Greenback:

The Almighty Dollar and the Invention of America

Acknowledgments

I’d like to thank the usual suspects among my family and friends for their encouragement and advice, not least Richard Goodwin, who read the manuscript at an early stage—and hopes that Amelie will make it back to Istanbul one day.

Berrin Torolsan inspires cooks and scholars alike with her writing in Cornucopia, that beautiful and indispensable quarterly devoted to all things Turkish. Not only has she generously shared her knowledge of Ottoman cookery and history with me, she has also read the book with a critical eye. I should point out that all its errors, deviations, and flagrant misrepresentations are mine alone: fiction, I’m afraid, is no respecter of fact.

Translators, editors, proofreaders, and designers around the world brought Yashim’s debut in The Janissary Tree to life in thirty-two languages. Thanks to Agnieszka Kuc in Poland, Nina van Rossem in Holland, Fortunato Israel, and my Italian translator, Cristiana Mennella, who made L’Albero dei Giannezzeri such a successful giallo. I have been grateful for the enthusiasm of, among others, Sylvie Audoly in Paris and Elena Ramirez in Barcelona.

Sarah Chalfant at the Wylie Agency introduced me to this other world. My thanks to the team, but above all to Charles Buchan for his tireless and good-humored efforts on Yashim’s behalf. I have been lucky to have two superb editing editors, Julian Loose at Faber in the U.K. and Sarah Crichton at Farrar, Straus and Giroux in New York, whose wisdom I have always received gratefully, and have generally acted upon.

Much of this book was written far away from the rumpus of family life, with no interruptions, no battles for control of the computer. My son, Izaak, has grown tall and learned much. This book is for him.

A Note About the Author

JASON GOODWIN fell under the spell of Istanbul while studying Byzantine history at Cambridge University. Following the success of his book A Time for Tea: Travels Through China and India in Search of Tea, he made a six-month pilgrimage across Eastern Europe to reach Istanbul for the first time, a journey recounted in On Foot to the Golden Horn: A Walk to Istanbul. He is also the author of Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire and The Janissary Tree, the first book featuring Investigator Yashim. He lives in Sussex, England, and is married with four children.

SARAH CRICHTON BOOKS

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

19 Union Square West, New York 10003