The Bellini Card (Ivestigator Yashim)

301 Pages·2010·1.22 MB·English

by  Jason Goodwin

ALSO BY JASON GOODWIN
Fiction
The Janissary Tree
The Snake Stone
Nonfiction
A Time for Tea:
Travels Through China and India in Search of Tea
On Foot to the Golden Horn:
A Walk to Istanbul
Lords of the Horizons:
A History of the Ottoman Empire
Greenback:
The Almighty Dollar and the Invention of America
a novel
JASON GOODWIN
SARAH CRICHTON BOOKS
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
New York
SARAH CRICHTON BOOKS
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
18 West 18th Street, New York 10011
Copyright © 2008 by Jason Goodwin
All rights reserved
Distributed in Canada by Douglas & McIntyre Ltd.
Printed in the United States of America
Originally published in 2008 by Faber and Faber Ltd., Great Britain
Published in the United States by Sarah Crichton Books /
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
First American edition, 2009
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Goodwin, Jason, 1964–
The Bellini card / by Jason Goodwin.—1st American ed.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-0-374-11039-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-374-11039-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Yashim (Fictitious character : Goodwin)—Fiction.
2. Eunuchs—Turkey—Fiction. 3. Art—Collectors and
collecting—Fiction. 4. Art dealers—Crimes against—Italy—
Venice—Fiction. 5. Venice (Italy)—Social life and customs—
19th century—Fiction. 6. Istanbul (Turkey)—Social life and
customs—19th century—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3607.O59227B45 2009
813’.6—dc22
2008053238
Designed by Cassandra J. Pappas
www.fsgbooks.com
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
For Bibby
Com’era, dov’era
[As it was, where it was]

—
VENETIAN MOTTO

Never judge a painting or a woman by candlelight.

—
VENETIAN PROVERB
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34