Books

My Name is Red, by Orhan Pamuk (Faber and Faber, 2001)

Pamuk transports readers into the fantasyland of 16th-century Istanbul in this sweeping story about the soul of Turkey. The mystery begins when an artist commissioned by the Sultan to illuminate a manuscript is killed. What follows is a rich, layered tale that uses mystery, love, art, philosophy, and multiple points of view (including those of a tree, dog, ink, and gold coin) to convey not only a sense of place, but also a state of mind of the land of Turkey.

Istanbul, Memories and the City, by Orhan Pamuk (Knopf, 2005)

Pamuk paints a portrait of himself and of his city, Istanbul, in this gentle, ethereal novel that hangs, dreamlike, between fantasy and reality. As he revisits his life and childhood, Pamuk also recalls Istanbul as it once was, a city of thoughtful melancholy, huzun, in Arabic. Discover a man and the land that shaped him in this profound novel that rewards readers with a penetrating perspective of Istanbul.

Fez of the Heart: Travels Around Turkey in Search of a Hat, by Jeremy Seal (Harcourt, 1996)

Kemal Ataturk dealt a blow to tradition and history when, in the interest of promoting Westernism, he banned the fez in Turkey in 1925. Ever since (and for decades before), Turkey has teetered between tradition and modernity, East and West. Seal sets off in search of the fez, and of the soul of old Turkey, in this rollicking journey through Kurdish territories, the Black Sea, Ankara, Istanbul, and Cappadocia.

Tales from the Expat Harem, edited by Anastasia Ashman and Jennifer Eaton Gokmen (Seal Press, 2006)

Follow the journeys of 29 women as they discover Turkey and its people in this collection of stories designed to reveal a culture often veiled in mystery and mystique. A 30-year-old African American encounters a lust-filled dating scene in Istanbul; a shy English teacher confronts her self-image in a 13th-century bathhouse; an Iowan evangelist is changed by the very Turkish souls she hoped to convert. The beauty of Tales is that each story paints Turkey as the narrator experiences it, and, together, the stories construct a portrait of a people and their place.