Constantinople

In the year 1108, Sigurd the Crusader left Bergen with sixty ships and ten thousand men. They were going to Jerusalem to bring home a piece of the Cross of Christ. In Constantinople he meets a young Turkish woman. She has arrived as a refugee from Byzantium, he as a crusader. The meeting between Amina Arslan and King Sigurd ensures fatal consequences for the both of them.

Thorvald Steen's Constantinople is an intense and cunning story of a failed crusade and a distressing encounter between East and West. With this book, Steen renews the possibilities of historical novels.

Praise for Constantinople:

"The novel is both superb and subtle"
(Dagens Nyheter, Sweden)

"The description of Sigurd the Crusader’s journey and encounter with love is not only strongly and beautifully portrayed. It is innovative"
(Litteratura Gaizzetta)

"Thorvald Steen is about to chisel out his own literary genre, at least he risks being placed amongst the really great authors"
(Dagsavisen)

" Constantinople is a tremendous novel about Sigurds failed crusade. He not only has given an exemplary story, but also given the genre a much needed salt water injection"
(Weekendavisen, Denmark)

"The novel is both elegant and has a sure touch of style. It not only brings new astounding material, it’s even passed on with humor"
(Le Monde)

"What a powerful and impressive novel"
(Turkish Daily News)

“The language in this novel is very conscious, at the same time simple and utterly sensitive. What is perhaps most impressive is that he succeeds in creating both immediacy and distance vis-à-vis this historical tale”
(Neue Zuricher Zeitung, Switzerland)

Languages: Bulgarian (Pandorama), Danish (Per Kofod forlag), English, Finnish (Like), French (Calmann-Levy), German (Suhrkamp/Insel/Pforte), Kurdish (Avesta), Russian (MIK), Turkish (Can Yayinlari), Romanian (Pandura), Swedish (Nordstedts).

First published: 1999, Forlaget Oktober
Thorvald Steen: Biography and bibliography

Rights sold to