Description

From the the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature Part detective story part historical epica bold and brilliant novel that imagines a plague ravaging a fictional island in the Ottoman Empire

It is April 1900in the Levant on the imaginary island of Mingheriathe twentyninth state of the Ottoman Empirelocated in the eastern Mediterranean between Crete and Cyprus Half the population is Muslim the other half are Orthodox Greeksand tension is high between the two When a plague arrivesbrought either by Muslim pilgrims returning from the Mecca or by merchant vessels coming from Alexandriathe island revolts

To stop the epidemic the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II sends his most accomplishedquarantine expert to the islandan Orthodox Christian Some of the Muslims including followers of a popular religious sect and its leader Sheikh Hamdullah refuse to take precautions or respect the quarantine And then a murder occurs

As the plague continues its rapid spread the Sultan sends a second doctor to the island this time a Muslim and strict quarantine measures are declared But the incompetence of the islands governor and local administration and the peoples refusal to respect the bans doom the quarantine to failure and the death count continues to riseFaced with the danger that the plague might spread to the West and to Istanbul the Sultan bows to international pressure and allows foreign and Ottoman warships to blockade the island Now the people ofMingheriaare on theirown andthey must find a way to defeat the plague themselves

Steeped in history and rife with suspense Nights of Plague is an epic story set more than one hundred years ago with themes that feel remarkably contemporary