Istanbul, 1538. The greatest of the Ottoman sultans is at the pinnacle of world power, while his family and his future are at the mercy of their own dynastic law: whichever of his five sons succeeds him must eventually kill the others, so why shouldn't he get a good start?

Over the next fifteen years, as Suleiman the Magnificent and his terrifying pirate captain Barbarossa confront imperial enemies across hemispheres, a self-fulfilling curse from the blazing pyres of Paris to the rain-soaked mountains of Transylvania, from Buda to Basra, from Crimea to the coast of India, The Golden Throne is a groundbreaking global reconstruction of the life and world of the sixteenth century's most feared and powerful man. Dramatically sensational yet thoroughly historical, it puts us in the room with many of the era's key figures—the arrogant, gap-jawed Holy Roman Emperor; the untrustworthy, flamboyant King of France; the arrogant, beer-soaked Martin Luther—and shows them consumed by rage and hurt, toxic yet vulnerable. And here, behind closed doors, we witness Suleiman's beloved wife, Hürrem, wage relentless war on his eldest son, born of her predecessor in the sultan's bed, culminating in a terrifying act that would define Suleiman's legacy. "The Golden Throne" reveals one of history's greatest, yet least understood, figures as never before. It's an epic yet intimate drama about personal power exercised with world-changing consequences, revealing the price of succession and the high cost of success.