It begins with an explosion. Another day, another bus bomb. Everyone, it
seems, is after a piece of Turkey. But the shock waves from this random
act of twenty-first-century pandemic terrorism will ripple further and
resonate louder than just Enginsoy Square.
Welcome to the world of The Dervish House -- the great, ancient,
paradoxical city of Istanbul, divided like a human brain in the great,
ancient, equally paradoxical nation of Turkey. The year is 2027 and
Turkey is about to celebrate the fifth anniversary of its accession to
the European Union, a Europe that now runs from the Aran Islands to
Mount Ararat. Population pushing one hundred million, Istanbul swollen
to fifteen million, Turkey is the largest, most populous, and most
diverse nation in the EU, but also one of the poorest and most socially
divided. It's a boom economy, the sweatshop of Europe, the bazaar of
central Asia, the key to the immense gas wealth of Russia and central
Asia. The Dervish House is six characters, five days, three
interconnected story strands, one central common core -- the eponymous
dervish house, a character in itself -- that spins all these players
together in a weave of intrigue, conflict, drama, and a ticking clock of
a thriller.
