The Architect’s Apprentice is gracefully written, in a light, airy tone that has readers growing and progressing with the plot. Loping through the finely wrought narrative are a white elephant, Chota, and his unlike companion mahout Jahan. The story follows Jahan and Chota through the reign of the 3 Sultans, in a series of historical snapshots. Jahan himself is a study in uncertainty, and often finds himself out of his depth, in a world he never expected to inhabit. In the adopted city of Istanbul, and under an illustrious mentor, Jahan’s life becomes one of exploration and yearning. Shafak takes the reader through his many adventures; when he is sent to war by the Sultan and later to Rome by Sinan to learn from Michelangelo; when he spends a night in a “bawdy house” and spends weeks captive in the palace dungeon; and in the novel’s thrilling conclusion, when he attempts to settle scores after stumbling upon an intriguing plot of treachery. There is, as one might expect, a love story; Jahan’s longing for the Sultan’s daughter, a yearning that is both forbidden and impossible, but has its special moments of stolen tenderness.
Shafak’s intense storytelling has her characters leaping off the pages of her novel. They flow effortlessly through the narrative, carrying it along in comfortable harmony. For all of Jahan’s uncertainties, though, the most fascinating character in this book is surely Sinan, the architect responsible for some of Istanbul’s best-known landmarks. This man, despite being the only one who knows all the secrets of the Palace and the city, is a calm centre in the whirling tempest of Ottoman politics. His character has many facets – strength, intrigue, wit, faith, intellect, wisdom, and, most importantly, the skill of teaching. To awestruck students, he explains that “Architecture is a mirror that reflects the harmony and balance present in the world, it is a conversation with God.”