Michael David Lukas
Award-Winning, Best-Selling Author of:
The Invisible Line, The Last Watchman of Old Cairo,
and The Oracle of Stamboul
THE INVISIBLE LINE
In this audacious historical novel, an American spy agrees to help the victors divide up the spoils of World War I by literally drawing the new borders of the Middle East—only to discover that the relic he holds has far greater power than he could have imagined.
In 1917, Elias Winters arrives in Egypt with a mysterious key entrusted to him by an old-boy network of Western power brokers. He is tasked to use the key to draw the new negotiated border in Ottoman Palestine. But he soon discovers he serves a different mission for the “Old Ones”—an ancient society known for their extraordinary longevity, strength, and ability to draw power from the land.
Elias is determined to harness the key’s powers to become one of the Old Ones himself. However, he is not alone in his quest to shape the region in the aftermath of war. Dr. Minna Weizmann believes the key can transform Ottoman Palestine into a Jewish homeland, while Dawood al-Haddad, a young Muslim university student hired to assist Elias, senses the key’s dark potential for the Arab nationalist cause.
Competing against others drawn to the key’s mysterious power, Elias, Minna, and Dawood find themselves in a race to finish the line and seize control of history itself. In a region on the verge of transformation and upheaval, The Invisible Line captures a moment of historic turmoil and the lengths we’ll go in the pursuit of power.
PRAISE
“
"Vividly imagined and hauntingly rendered, The Invisible Line addresses the violence of colonialism and the deep history of the land with moral clarity and magic."
ADAM MANSBACH,
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE GOLEM OF BROOKLYN
“
“A deeply original book. The Invisible Line uses genre to weave the fantastic into the real, living history of Palestine’s colonization—brilliantly literalizing the vampiric imperial jockeying that drew today’s map of the world.”
LYDIA KIESLING,
AUTHOR OF THE GOLDEN STATE AND MOBILITY
“
"Michael David Lukas is a wonderful and ambitious writer, he can even make you believe that what the Middle East desperately needs is vampires."
RABIH ALAMEDDINE,
AUTHOR OF THE TRUE TRUE STORY OF RAJA THE GULLIBLE (AND HIS MOTHER)
THE LAST WATCHMAN OF OLD CAIRO
WINNER OF: THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION’S SOPHIE BRODY AWARD • THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD IN FICTION • THE SAMI ROHR PRIZE FOR JEWISH LITERATURE • Named One of the Ten Best Books of the Year by the BBC • Longlisted for the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Fiction Prize
Joseph, a literature student at Berkeley, is the son of a Jewish mother and a Muslim father. One day, a mysterious package arrives on his doorstep, pulling him into a mesmerizing adventure to uncover the centuries-old history that binds the two sides of his family.
From the storied Ibn Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo, where generations of his family served as watchmen, to the lives of British twin sisters Agnes and Margaret, who in 1897 leave Cambridge on a mission to rescue sacred texts that have begun to disappear from the synagogue, this tightly woven multigenerational tale illuminates the tensions that have torn communities apart and the unlikely forces that attempt to bridge that divide.
Moving and richly textured, The Last Watchman of Old Cairo is a poignant portrait of the intricate relationship between fathers and sons, and an unforgettable testament to the stories we inherit and the places we are from.
PRAISE
“
"The prose is deeply evocative…but his greatest flair is in capturing the essence of that beautiful, haunted, shabby, beleaguered, yet still utterly sublime Middle Eastern city.”
LUCETTE LAGNADO, AUTHOR OF THE MAN IN THE WHITE SHARKSKIN SUIT
“
“Wonderfully rich . . . The deep pleasures of this novel come from the interconnecting narratives and how they inform one another [with] a mingling of history and imagination and mystery.”
NATALIE BAKOPOULOS,
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
“
“Lukas’s writing explodes with imaginative force and splendor.. [He] demonstrates in this novel his sublime ability to enchant us with unforgettable characters and moving stories that linger with us long after we have finished his magical book.”
ELAINE MARGOLIN,
JERUSALEM POST
THE ORACLE OF STAMBOUL
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • Finalist for the California Book Award • Finalist for the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Fiction Prize • Finalist for the Harold U. Ribalow Prize
Set in the heart of the exotic Ottoman Empire during the first years of its chaotic decline, Michael David Lukas' elegantly crafted, utterly enchanting debut novel follows a gifted young girl who dares to charm a sultan—and change the course of history, for the empire and the world. An enthralling literary adventure, perfect for readers entranced by the mixture of historical fiction and magical realism in Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass, Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red, or Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, Lukas' evocative tale of prophesy, intrigue, and courage unfolds with the subtlety of a Turkish mosaic and the powerful majesty of an epic for the ages.
It is 1877, on the shores of the Black Sea, and the omens for the newborn Eleonora Cohen are hardly promising. Not only does her mother die in childbirth, but her village is being attacked by the Tsar's Royal Cavalry. However, despite this bad beginning, a sour stepmother and a traumatic journey in the hold of a ship, young Eleonora grows into a remarkably clever but very engaging child. And when a heartbreaking tragedy leaves her marooned in Istanbul, it is Eleonora's extraordinary courage and character which lead her straight to the Sultan's court, and to her salvation.
PRAISE
“
"A stunning debut ... Lukas has managed to create an instant classic that feels as if it should be retroactively slipped into the great libraries of the old world."
REIF LARSEN,
AUTHOR OF THE COLLECTED WORKS OF T.S. SPIVET
“
“Beguiling…Lukas veers from the tried-and-true, making The Oracle of Stamboul a novel that offers delightful surprises.”
JANE CIABATTARI, LOS ANGELES TIMES
“
"The exotic sights and sounds of nineteenth-century Turkey spring vividly to life in Lukas' promising debut."
BOOKLIST
(STARRED REVIEW)
NONFICTION AND OTHER WORK
“Grappling With the Talmud in the Midst of Crisis,” The New York Times Magazine
“More to the Story,” The Common
“Bedtime Story,” Indiana Review (pdf)
“Turning 40 and Looking Death in the Eye,” The New York Times
“The Hypocrisy of Hanukkah,” The New York Times
“From Cairo to Kolkata, Traces of a Vibrant Jewish Past,” The New York Times
“Five Books about Building Bridges,” Book Marks
“We Were More than Just Slaves in Egypt,” Forward
“A Novelist’s Poetic License with the Past,” Publishers Weekly
“Of Blessed Memory,” In the Shadows of Memory: The Holocaust and the Third Generation
“When the News and the Novel Collide,” The New York Times
“A Multiplicity of Voices,” The Millions
“Fear and Loving in Cairo,” Wall Street Journal
“Cutting it Close Makes the Trip Worthwhile,” Wall Street Journal
“Sympathy for the Pharaoh,” Slate
“Lessons from Third Grade,” Publishers Weekly
“Workshopping War Literature,” Virginia Quarterly Review
“Golems, Novelists, and Other Superheroes,” Tikkun
“A Skeptic’s Guide to Passover,” Slate
** “Passover Miracles Meet Scientific Explanations,” All Things Considered
“Forget the Quran,” Slate
** “Culinary Orientalism,” The New York Times Magazine
“The Commercial Campus,” Providence Phoenix
“My Summer Job,” Brown Alumni Magazine
“A Writer’s Life,” Brown Alumni Magazine
EVENTS
Michael David Lukas has been featured in a variety of media outlets and has spoken at venues across the country.
Past opportunities have included radio and podcasts (NPR's All Things Considered, NPR's Weekend Edition, KQED's Forum); print and online publications (The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, Publishers Weekly); and interviews (LitHub, The Millions, The Rumpus, BookReporter).
Readings and other author events have taken place at bookstores, libraries, festivals, conferences, and universities, including the Bay Area Book Festival, the Wisconsin Book Festival, the Istanbul International Book Fair, and UC Berkeley's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Lukas has also appeared in conversation with other writers, including Michael Ondaatje, Kazuo Ishiguro, Yiyun Li, Rabih Alameddine, and Andre Aciman.
To inquire about a future speaking engagement or event, please contact Josie McRoberts, Associate Publicist at Crown.
ABOUT
Winner of the Sami Rohr Prize, the National Jewish Book Award, and the Prix Interallie, Michael David Lukas is the author of The Invisible Line, The Last Watchman of Old Cairo and The Oracle of Stamboul. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, VQR, The Common, and the Georgia Review. A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Workshop, he has been a Fulbright Scholar in Turkey, a Rotary Scholar in Tunisia, a staff member at UC Berkeley’s Center for Middle East Studies, and a visiting scholar at the Graduate Theological Union. He lives in Oakland and teaches at San Francisco State University.
For information about manuscript consultation services, please click here.
CONTACT
For media or event inquiries, please email mdlukas [at] yahoo [dot] com
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