I have to admit, Audible’s recommendations have made a turn for the better in the last few months. I’m still getting the odd self-help book and re-hashed Kindle purchase, but on the whole, I think they’ve finally figured out what I like to listen to. My audiobook preferences differ from my ‘read-book’ preferences in that I tend to favour non-fiction with a strong, clear narrative. Complex fiction, I’ve found, don’t suit me well, as I have to expend too much energy trying to follow along and can’t really relax when listening. (Salman Rushdie, I’m so sorry, but audio is not my prefered medium for your books!)
So my purchase history is currently filling up with biographies and history books. And then Audible goes ahead and recommends me something that is a little bit of both: Ghost Empire.
Richard Fidler, best known in Australia for being a journalist, radio broadcaster and one time Doug Anthony Allstar, has nursed a fascination with the often looked over history of Constantinople and the Byzantium for over twenty years. And to be honest, it is odd that the Byzantium is so badly neglected in history class – in the west, at least. I can only assume that it gets pushed by the wayside by our fixation with ancient Rome, and again by our rather self-centred focus on Western Europes’ progress through the Middle Age.
Which is a damned shame really, as the history of the split of the Eastern Roman Empire is fascinating, as Fidler demonstrates, with no shortage of dramatic stories that genuinely had an impact on history. For a time, Constantinople was one of the wealthiest and most influential cities in the world. Spanning the gap between Europe and West Asia, Constantinople was a real commercial and multicultural hub, which rose to legendary status in places as far away as Scandinavia and China. This was a city initially designated to be a New Rome by those with nostalgia for an old empire, and ambitions for a new one. It was Constantinople’s rulers who helped shape both the Catholic (by the Nicaean Creed) and Orthodox churches, as well as serving as a buttress against the spread of Islam into the west.
Fidler finally visited Istanbul, as the city is now known, in January of 2014, along with his teenage son Joe. Richard, while obviously very well read on the subject, is not an actual, trained historian and I believe writing as though he were one would have proven to be a mistake. What he is though, is a talented conversationalist, and brimming with enthusiasm for the subject at hand. So Fidler plays to his strengths, and uses his storytelling skills to weave a narrative that mixes the historical with the contemporary; with his travelogue with his son making a perfect framing device. It’s something that sounds like it could come across as corny, but it is handled deftly, and the Audiobook is as relaxing to listen to as an extended episode of one of his radio programs.
Fidler says that part of the reason for his book is that he wanted to share the history of Constantinople with his son. But in writing a book that is so enjoyable, he’s likely succeeded in sharing it with not just Joe, but all of his readers as well. Even if you have a more serious historical bent, Ghost Empire still serves as a solid introduction to the subject, and a springboard to other works.
Personally, after finishing this book, I want to read up more on the Fourth Crusade. But keeping track of references is a bit difficult when you’re listening to the audiobook version.
As much as I love audiobooks, that’s one drawback to the medium, I’m afraid!