"Wherever you imprison me, I will travel the world on the wings of my thoughts." - Ahmet Altan. Ahmet Altan is one of Turkey's most successful writers and one of the country's most renowned critical journalists. In 2018, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Power, love, intrigue, sensuality: a grand historical novel about the downfall of the Ottoman Empire. When the beautiful Mehpare marries the son of the Sultan's court physician, an exciting journey into the realm of sensuality begins for her. But behind the veils of the flourishing city of Istanbul, bloody betrayal rages - the last days of the Ottoman Empire have begun. "Ahmet Altan proves to be a great novelist and a connoisseur of the human soul." - Brigitte. The book was previously published in 2002 under the title "The Scent of Paradise.".