A review by margotfoster
Ghost Empire: A Journey to the Legendary Constantinople by Richard Fidler

4.0

Histories are very rarely my thing. This was a book club pick that I delayed starting but was pretty surprised by. The author uses a personal story as a framing for recounting an overarching history of the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire, especially focused around the city of Constantinople. The framing story ties together the accounting of history along with a number of interesting stories and digressions that made for an interesting read. I found it both interesting and engaging and really appreciated that the author clearly delineated when a story was mostly lore or accounts of an event were few or questionable but still telling the tales to create interesting through lines.

While I could have done without some of the personal anecdotes, I feet that the format allowed the author to show some of the correlations and contrasts to modern day society. Would recommend.

The audiobook is narrated by the author and I think his authentic enthusiasm for the topic enhances the reading.