Each year, when the weather in Istanbul becomes unbearable, the family of Iskender Pasha, a retired Ottoman notable, retires to its summer palace overlooking the Sea of Marmara. It is 1899 and the last great Islamic empire is in serlous trouble. A former tutor poses a question which the family has been refusing to confront for almost a century:

“Your Ottoman Empire is like a drunken prostitute, neither knowing nor caring who will take her next. Do I exaggerate, Memed?”

The history of Iskender Pasha’s family mirrors the growing degeneration of the Empire they have served for the last five hundred years. This passionate story of masters and servants, school-teachers and painters, is marked by jealousies, vendettas and, with the decay of the Empire, a new generation which is deeply hostile to the half-truths and myths of the “golden days.“

The Stone Woman is the third novel of Tariq Ali's “Islam Quartet.” Like its predecessors – Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree and The Book of Saladin – its power lies both in the story-telling and the challenge it poses to stereotyped images of life under Islam.

“A richly woven tapestry that, even before its completion, merits comparison with Naguib Mahfouz's celebrated Cairo Trilogy. A great work in progress.” – Kirkus Reviews

“In this fiercely lyrical second installment ... Ali exposes deep wounds between Christian, Muslim and Jewish civilizations that have yet to heal. A digressive arabesque weaving tales of political intrigue, gay and straight love, betrayal, cross-dressing, rape, assassination and crimes of passion, his tale ripples with implicit parallels to our age.” — Publishers Weekly on The Book of Saladin

Tariq Ali is a writer and film-maker. He has written over a dozen books on world history and politics and plays for both stage and screen. The Stone Woman is his fifth novel.

Also available:

Bush in Babylon

The Clash of Fundamentalisms

Street-fighting Years: An Autobiography of the Sixties

The Book of Saladin

Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree

A Sultan in Palermo

Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis of Hope