The Sultan's Eyes by Kelly Gardiner

JUDGES' COMMENTS

Sultan’s Eyes is set in 1648, the time of the Spanish Inquisition. That this is a period seen through the perspective of the book’s 16-year-old heroine, Isabella Hawkins, makes this a truly entertaining and captivating read. Intelligent, courageous and defiant, Isabella risks all to publish controversial books with her friends in Venice – the city she has taken refuge in after narrowly escaping the clutches of Inquisitor Fra Clement and his Holy order in the prequel to this book, Act of Faith. When Fra Clement is appointed Inquisitor to Venice, Isabella and her friends must abandon their new, beloved home and flee to the beguiling city of Constantinople, capital of the Ottoman Empire. Ruled by the Sultanate of Women and the seven-year old boy Sultan Mehmet IV, Isabella and her friends are soon caught up in a web of palace intrigues, conspiracies and political machinations.

Sultan’s Eyes is much more than a rollicking, action packed work of historical fiction. While effortlessly weaving history, adventure, romance and philosophy into the story, Gardner subverts and entices with her cast of richly drawn characters and the complicated, poignant relationships between them. At the centre of it all, however, is a young girl whose convictions and loyalties are put to the test. And here lies the seduction of Sultan’s Eyes: young adult readers will identify with the sometimes vulnerable, sometimes fierce Isabella, who shows us that having the courage to embrace your convictions transcends time and place.