Book | The Oriental Dancer: The Constantinople Trilogy, 1, by Metin Arditi

Mavi Boncuk |

New release (March 5, 2025): The book 

The Oriental Dancer: The Constantinople Trilogy, 1, by Metin Arditi[1], publisher: Grasset

Constantinople, end of the Ottoman Empire. Gülgül, a young wrestler at the Sultan's palace, is trained in the mysteries of calligraphy. By what miracle? We soon learn that he is the hidden son of the Sultan's personal calligrapher. Born to a Jewish father converted to Islam and a Christian mother, slender and of rare beauty, he embodies the cosmopolitanism of the dying empire.

He finds himself unwittingly embroiled in a murky forgery affair, hatched by Bazaar merchants at the Sultan's expense. He will uncover it.

After the fall of the Empire, he is hired by a brothel, where a couple of prostitutes take a liking to him and involve him in their antics. They teach him oriental dance, an art in which he will excel, disguised as a woman.

The cosmopolitanism of Constantinople degenerates into ethnic tensions. In the Empire that has become a Republic, Kemal Atatürk modernizes the country at a rapid pace. A national wrestling champion, a hero of the young nation, Gülgül will earn the admiration of the new master. A plot to assassinate Atatürk will be foiled thanks to him. An unlikely love will bind him to Bella, a wealthy bourgeois woman older than him.

Between the delicate art of calligraphy and the mysteries of brothels, between sporting nationalism and political conspiracy, The Oriental Dancer paints a captivating picture of a decadent Constantinople.

[1] Metin Arditi, born 2 February 1945 in Ankara, is a French-speaking Swiss writer of Turkish Sephardi origin.

Metin Arditi left Turkey at the age of seven. After spending eleven years in a Swiss boarding school in Lausanne, he studied at the EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), where he earned a degree in physics and a postgraduate degree in nuclear engineering. He continued his studies at Stanford Business School, where he got an MBA. He lives in Geneva, where he is very involved in the cultural and artistic life of the city. From 2000 to 2013 he was Chairman of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (O.S.R.). He is a member of the Strategic Council of the EPFL, where over the years he taught physics (Assistant to Prof. Mercier), economics and management (as lecturer) and creative writing (as Visiting Professor). In 1988, he created the Arditi Foundation which awards fifteen annual prizes to graduates of the University of Geneva and the EPFL. The Arditi Foundation has purchased and offered to the University of Geneva a landmark theater, the Cinema Manhattan, now called Auditorium Fondation Arditi. He is the founder of " The Instruments of Peace Foundation ", which offers musical education to children of Palestine and Israel. He is a member of the Foundation Board of the Music Conservatory of Geneva. He chaired the Building Committee of the Martin Bodmer Museum in Cologny. In December 2012, Metin Arditi was appointed UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. In June 2014, UNESCO appointed him Special Envoy for Intercultural dialogue. In September 2014, he created the Arditi Foundation for Intercultural Dialogue.

Writing

Author of essays and novels, Metin Arditi is a writer of intimacy. All his books deal with the same themes : the difficulty of parenthood, loneliness and exile.

Works

1997: Essay: Mon Cher Jean… de la cigale à la fracture sociale, (éditions Zoé, Genève)

1998: Essay: La Fontaine, fabuliste infréquentable, (éditions Le Fablier, Château-Thierry)

1999: Essay: Le Mystère Machiavel, (éditions Zoé, Genève)

2000: Essay: Nietzsche ou l'insaisissable consolation, (éditions Zoé, Genève)

2001: Récit: Jonction, (K.G. Saur Verlag, Munich)

2002: Récit: La Chambre de Vincent, (éditions Zoé, Genève)

2004: Novel: Victoria-Hall, (Pauvert, Paris)

2005: Novel: Dernière lettre à Théo, (éditions Actes Sud, Arles)

2006: Novel: La Pension Marguerite, (éditions Actes Sud, Arles)

2006: Novel: L'Imprévisible, (éditions Actes Sud, Arles)

2007: Novel: La Fille des Louganis, (éditions Actes Sud, Arles)

2009: Novel: Loin des bras, (éditions Actes Sud, Arles)

2011: Novel: Le Turquetto, (éditions Actes Sud, Arles)[*]

2012: Novel: Prince d'orchestre, (éditions Actes Sud, Arles)

2013: Novel: La Confrérie des moines volants, (éditions Grasset, Paris)

2015: Novel: Juliette dans son bain, (éditions Grasset, Paris)

2016: Novel: L'Enfant qui mesurait le monde, (éditions Grasset, Paris)

2017: Novel: Mon père sur mes épaules, (éditions Grasset, Paris)

2018: Novel: Carnaval noir, (éditions Grasset, Paris)

2020: Novel: Rachel et les siens, (éditions Grasset, Paris), 504 pages ISBN 978-2-2468-2599-9[5][6]

2021: Novel: L'homme qui peignait les âmes, (éditions Grasset, Paris), 292 pages ISBN 978-2-246-82395-7

Literary Awards

2004 : Prix du Premier roman de Sablet (Victoria-Hall)

2006 : Prix Lipp Suisse (La Pension Marguerite)

2006 : Prix des Auditeurs de la Radio Suisse Romande (L'Imprévisible)

2007 : Prix Version Femina- Virgin Megastore. Prix de l'Office Central des Bibliothèques, Prix Ronsard des Lycéens (La Fille des Louganis)

2011 : Prix Jean-Giono, Prix de l'Académie de Bretagne, Prix de l'Académie Romande, Prix des Libraires de Nancy-Le Point, Prix Paroles et Plumes, Prix Millepages, Prix Page des Libraires, Prix Culture et Bibliothèques pour tous, Prix Casanova, Prix Alberto-Benveniste, Prix Océanes (Le Turquetto)

2019 : Prix du Livre de l'Art de Vivre Parisien

2021 : Shortlist of the prix du roman métis des lecteurs

[*] Turquetto Metin Arditi EAN : 9782742799190 280 pages Actes Sud (01/08/2011)

Could it be that a famous painting—whose signature displays a chromatic anomaly—is the only surviving work by one of the greatest painters of the Venetian Renaissance: a prodigious student of Titian, whom he himself called "the Turquetto" (the little Turk)?

Metin Arditi has taken an interest in this figure. Born to Jewish parents in a Muslim land (in Constantinople, around 1519), this son of a slave market employee went into exile in Venice at a very young age to perfect and practice his art. Under an assumed identity, he frequented Titian's studios before making a career and giving the Venetian congregations an admirable body of work informed by biblical tradition, Ottoman calligraphy, and Byzantine sacred art. He was at the height of his fame when an affair uncovered him and brought him before the courts of Venice...

Metin Arditi delightfully depicts the abundance of the Grand Bazaar of Constantinople, the revolts of the young boy eager for drawing and images, his sudden departure... Then the reader finds Turquetto in his middle years, married and recognized, an artist caught up in the subtleties of Venetian rivalries, in this prosperous period of the Renaissance when his rise and fall were accomplished.

Rhythmic, colorful, and filled with miniature paintings, Metin Arditi's book evokes the themes of lineage, the relationship between art and power, and the synthesis of religious influences that is Turquetto's distinctive hallmark.

Born in Turkey, familiar with both Italy and Greece, Metin Arditi is at the confluence of several languages, traditions, and sources of inspiration. His encounter with Turquetto owes nothing to chance, nor to art history. Because to embody this exceptional painter, it was first necessary to have all the empathy - and the vision - of a novelist of his calibre.