Tonight my book club at the West Kildonan Library will be discussing The Architect’s Apprentice by Elif Shafak. 
Shafak, a Turkish author, says her book was inspired by this image of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent which has an elephant in the background. The print created in 1559, during the same time period as the events in the book, is by a German artist Melchior Lorck and is in the British Museum.
Here are four things I found interesting about the novel The Architect’s Apprentice.
Mihrimah Sultan is the protagonist’s love interest in the book. Here she is portrayed by Italian artist Cristofan dell’Altissimo who lived at the same time as Mihrimah did.
Although the protagonist Jahan is a fictional character author Elif Shafak has populated her novel with other characters who are real. Jahan is an apprentice to Sinan the renowned architect of the Ottoman Empire. Sinan oversaw the building of some 500 structures and nearly 200 of them are still standing. Jahan’s love interest is the Sultan’s daughter Mihrimah. She is a historical figure as well. So are the three sultans who are in power during the time Jahan serves Sinan the Royal Architect. In one section of the book Jahan and another apprentice go to visit Michelangelo in Italy.
There are many thought provoking reflections in the book. Here are a three I really appreciated.
“If you carry a sword, you obey the sword, not the other way round. Nobody can hold a weapon and keep their hands clear of blood at the same time.”
“……Jahan understood his master’s secret resided ……… in his ability to adapt to change and calamity, and to rebuild himself, again and again, out of the ruins. Sinan was made of flowing water. When anything blocked his course, he would flow under, around, above it, however he could; he found his way through the cracks, and kept flowing forward”
“Stones stay still. A learner never.”
Jahan’s closest relationship in life is with an elephant named Chota. Jahan arrives in Istanbul as Chota’s keeper and immediately sets about saving Chota’s life. I am not necessarily a big animal lover and will admit that I’ve never understood the deep love some people have for their pets, but I was quite taken with the way Jahan and Chota care for one another, know each other so well, come to one another’s defense, respect each other and provide each other with solace and comfort at crucial times.
And finally at the end of the book Jahan travels to Agra India to help design and build the dome for the Taj Mahal. I have been to the Taj Mahal and my husband made me pose for this photo where I am appearing to hold up the magnificent structure by the top of the dome.
Other posts……..
My friend Marilyn recommended The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean and it was the perfect novel for me. I am an art gallery tour guide and so is Marina, the main character in the book. 
I led tours for more than a hundred teens during the recent seven months long Insurgence Resurgence exhibit at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. It featured indigenous artists from across Canada. The nature of some of the art pieces on display led me to ask the junior and senior high students if they had heard of residential schools. Without exception they all had, and most could tell me about their devastating legacy. The young people on my tours knew
I’ve just added She Persisted Around the World to our church library. The book written by Chelsea Clinton and illustrated by Alexandra Boiger tells the stories of thirteen women from around the world who persisted despite all kinds of barriers placed in their way. 
Some of the women are familiar like Marie Curie twice awarded the Noble Prize for her discovery of two new scientific elements. She persisted despite the fact she had to leave her home country to study. 
Another familiar woman is English author J.K. Rowling who persisted in writing her award winning series of Harry Potter books despite being rejected by dozens of publishers. 
Other women featured in the book are not so familiar like Caroline Hershel an astronomer who discovered two planets. She persisted in studying astronomy even though her parents thought she should try to get a job as a servant. 
Another woman I hadn’t heard about before was Sissi Luna do Amor one of the first women to play soccer professionally in Brazil. She persisted even though she got in trouble for wanting to play because she was a girl. 
There is even a section in the book about Canada’s own Viola Desmond who persisted in retaining her seat in the “white” section of a movie theater even though she was black. 
“She Persisted” is the famous phrase directed at American Senator Elizabeth Warren when she insisted on reading a letter from Coretta Scott King to the Senate as a way to defend her objection to the appointment of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General. Sessions had an abysmal record on civil rights which had previously prevented him from being appointed as a federal court judge. The Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell called for a vote to silence Senator Warren. He said he had no choice because she wouldn’t listen to him. “She persisted” he said and kept reading the letter. The phrase “she persisted” has quickly come to refer to women’s persistence in breaking barriers despite being silenced or ignored. 
One of the things I really liked about the Nelson Mandela display at the Canadian Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg is the way it provides the visitor with a variety of experiences to draw you into the story of the fight to end apartheid in South Africa. 
You can sit on a park bench clearly labeled For Europeans Only and read information about what it was like for a black woman to work as a domestic servant or a black man to be a miner in Johannesburg. Photos show how they were given unsanitary cramped living quarters and made to wear an identification bracelet with a number assigned by their employer. 
You can stand in a cell like the one where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for twenty- seven years. As silhouettes of Nelson appear on the walls you almost feel like you are with him on Robben Island where he was imprisoned because of his activism and leadership in the anti-apartheid movement. 
You can sit on chairs in a secret hideout and watch Nelson Mandela do a television interview with a British journalist at 2:00 am in 1961. 
Mandela had gone underground after been convicted of treason for his peaceful protests against apartheid. 
You can make a poster. A display features a whole variety of posters that helped to advance the ideals of the anti-apartheid movement. 
On an interactive board you can choose from many different options to create a background, wording and illustrations and create an anti-apartheid poster of your very own. If you take a photo you could even print up your poster at home.
You can write a letter. As you leave the display you watch young South Africans share their hopes and dreams for the future of their country. After being inspired by what Nelson Mandela did to bring about change in his community you have the opportunity to write a letter saying what you will do to change your community for the better. Letter writing paper, felt markers and even colorful envelopes are available and once you have written your message you can either keep it or ‘mail’ it to the world in the mail slot provided. 
The Nelson Mandela exhibit is informative and thought-provoking and provides opportunity for hands on involvement. Since experiencing the exhibit I’ve been thinking a lot about how the South African colonizers knew ending apartheid would also end their comfortable and successful way of life. Their story reminds us that people are always susceptible to following their basest instincts of self-survival and self- promotion even if that damages others and is not fair or ethical. Sadly it is still a timely message in our present day.
