Featured Author Chavdar Mihov

My name is Chavdar Mihov and I have an MA in Turkish Language, History and

Literature.

I am a Bulgarian writer who has successfully published three novels in Bulgaria. So far, I have published two thrillers and a satire based on Bulgaria’s recent Communist past. My last novel THE SECRET POWER OF THE HAREM was recently published by Tenth Street Press. It is the first in a series of novels inspired by the Ottoman history and casting light on little known facts from the hidden, but often decisive, role of women in the ruling of one of the most powerful empires in the world. The novel is based on the real conflict between two powerful women: Kösem Sultan and Turhan Hatice Sultan. It is intended for an adult reading audience (18+). amazon.com/dp/0992552915/

Toward the middle of the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire is still at the apex of its power. Mehmed IV’s ascent to the throne at the age of six, however, greatly intensifies the struggles for power and control in the Sultan’s court. In a world dominated by men, two intelligent, beautiful and ambitious women wage an open war.

The young Sultan’s grandmother and his mother fight over the regency: a severe battle in which all means are allowed to make sure only one of them would come out victorious. Who will overcome her adversary? Will it be the experienced Kösem Mahpeyker, who has pulled the strings of power covertly during the reign of five sultans? Or the tenacious Turhan Hatice, who became Queen Mother at only twenty years of age?

All of this takes place against the background of a panoramic view of the Ottoman Empire and one of its most secretive parts: the Sultan’s harem, an enigmatic place in the heart of the palace that houses hundreds of beautiful girls, where fiery passions and monstrous manipulations and intrigues determine the future. The harem is a veritable oasis of love but also of debauchery, of friendships but also of betrayals, of rises to but also of falls from power. You are atop the hierarchy today only to be eaten by the fish in the Golden Horn tomorrow.

This is an intense story that reveals how the seemingly boring events from the historical chronicles may prove far more intriguing than we first assumed.