Review: The Spanish woman (book about life in the Ottoman empire)

When I bought the book I expected a traditional romance novel But it is a book written by a male historian. The book starts as a romance story in which a woman is taken (in both meanings of the word writes the historic source material) captive by a Turkish naval captain. This means that her pending marriage to a Spanish nobleman will be cancelled and even when her family will pay her ransom she will be send to a convent for the rest of her life. She cannot stand that thought. However, they marry and the story turns more into a narrative of life in Ottoman Turkey. Where you have to make sure you do not offend the Sultan by falling in love with your own prisoner without at least offering the spoils of war to him first. Where the whole court moves every summer to Adrianople. Where the Queen Mum can summon you to court. But where women although veiled have quite some freedom. Even more it seemed to me then she had in Spain. It seems to be based on a mention of a Spanish woman who was married to a Turkish admiral, in letters of the wife of an English diplomat at the Ottoman court. Interesting book. I reread it a year later and it was even better then because then you know it is no juicy romance but a realistic tale of a woman who had to take matters in her own hands and ended up very happy. In our days of internet and telephones you can hardly imagine however that couples would not see each other or even speak to each other for a year due to work and you would not even know if the other was still alive.