Great reading that provides a sense of the city, from the Traveler online Ultimate Travel Library.
|
THIS ARTICLE IS FROM
|
Istanbul: Memories and the City, by Orhan Pamuk (2005)
Melancholy memoir of a crumbling Istanbul boyhood from the Nobel Prize-winning Turkish novelist. Life in the shadow of a glorious past.
The Bastard of Istanbul, by Elif Shafak (2007)
Switching between Turkey and the U.S., this controversial novel about Armenians and Turks follows four generations of women and their families as they leave behind embattled faith, ethnicity, and nationality, and don new identities.
The Janissary Tree, by Jason Goodwin (2006)
In this murder mystery set in 1836 Istanbul, the investigator is a court eunuch. Prime suspects are the Janissaries, the disbanded elite troops who once guarded the sultan.
Halide’s Gift, by Frances Kazan (2001)
Historical novel and fictionalized biography. The heroine is Atatürk's first woman sergeant, based on real-life Halide Edib—novelist, feminist leader, and parliamentarian who fought in Turkey’s War for Independence in the 1920s.
An Island in Istanbul: At Home on Heybeliada, by M. A. Whitten (2006)
Affectionate tale of an American couple buying a house on one of the Princes’ Islands in the Sea of Marmara, traditionally a refuge for Ottoman elites and ethnic minorities. Istanbul’s struggle to balance tradition with modernization is reflected in the island’s own evolving population.
