A city looks different from a cell beneath the street, the desk of a small-town hotel, or the edge of a neighborhood built on a garbage dump. These Turkish novels in English translation use places to get at the memories…
Items 15 The creator’s order
1 Istanbul Istanbul (2016) ★ 7.0 Open Library Published Jan 1, 2016 Four prisoners beneath Istanbul tell stories about the city above them. Read for the sudden turns into jokes and riddles, and how much of the city a handful of voices can bring into a cell. Translated by Ümit Hussein. 0 2 Kafamda bir tuhaflik (2015) ★ 10.0 Open Library Published Jan 1, 2015 In A Strangeness in My Mind, a vendor named Mevlut sells boza on winter nights as Istanbul changes around him. Pick this long novel to see decades of change at walking pace, as the same work takes Mevlut through a city his neighbors and relatives understand differently. Translated by Ekin Oklap. 0 3 Berji Kristin: Tales from the Garbage Hills (1996) Published Jan 1, 1996 Huts go up on a hill of garbage. When bulldozers flatten them, their residents build again. Read for the way the settlement’s shared stories give the hill a history as quickly as its residents give it streets. Translated by Ruth Christie and Saliha Paker. 0 4 Silence of Scheherazade (2021) Published Jan 1, 2021 In The Silence of Scheherazade, a Levantine, a Greek, a Turkish, and an Armenian family give the same streets of Ottoman Smyrna different meanings. The intersecting households are the pleasure of this sprawling historical novel and a reason to read it slowly. Translated by Betsy Göksel. 0 5 Leyla'nin Evi (2012) Published Jan 1, 2012 In Leyla’s House, an eviction takes an elderly woman from a Bosphorus mansion into a neighborhood where a hip-hop singer becomes her friend. Choose it for how much an unlikely friendship can reveal about who feels at home in a changing city. Translated by Brendan Freely and Yelda Türedi. 0 6 Motherland Hotel (2016) Published Jan 1, 2016 A hotel owner near a railway station waits for a guest who said she would come back. This short novel turns check-ins and other ordinary hotel routines into the measure of a fixation. Read it when you want a place that feels smaller and more airless by the page. Translated by Fred Stark. 0 7 Snow (2002) ★ 7.3 Open Library Published Jan 1, 2002 A blizzard isolates Kars just as Ka, a poet returning from exile, arrives to investigate a wave of deaths. The closed roads make an already divided city feel like a room nobody can leave. Choose it for political intrigue tangled up with a homecoming. Translated by Maureen Freely. 0 8 The time regulation institute (2013) ★ 8.0 Open Library Published Jan 1, 2013 If a slow clock could earn you a fine, who would decide what time it really was? Hayri Irdal finds himself inside an institution with an elaborate scheme to standardize Turkey’s clocks. Pick this one for the comic pleasure of watching an official system become more elaborate than the problem it was… 0 9 A mind at peace (2008) ★ 8.0 Open Library Published Jan 1, 2008 On the eve of World War II, a love story unfolds in Istanbul. The novel gives music as much room as ideas or romance, a reason to choose it if you like a city revealed through what people listen to and remember. Translated by Erdağ Göknar. 0 10 Bir deliler evinin yalan yanlış anlatılan kısa tarihi (2009) Published Jan 1, 2009 The Highly Unreliable Account of the History of a Madhouse begins at an asylum near the Black Sea. Before you can settle on one person’s story, Ayfer Tunç has found someone connected to it and followed that thread. Try it for the pleasure of seeing a whole social world emerge from digressions.… 0 
Istanbul Istanbul (2016)Published Jan 1, 2016Four prisoners beneath Istanbul tell stories about the city above them. Read for the sudden turns into jokes and riddles, and how much of the city a handful of voices can bring into a cell. Translated by Ümit Hussein.0
Kafamda bir tuhaflik (2015)Published Jan 1, 2015In A Strangeness in My Mind, a vendor named Mevlut sells boza on winter nights as Istanbul changes around him. Pick this long novel to see decades of change at walking pace, as the same work takes Mevlut through a city his neighbors and relatives understand differently. Translated by Ekin Oklap.0
Berji Kristin: Tales from the Garbage Hills (1996)Published Jan 1, 1996Huts go up on a hill of garbage. When bulldozers flatten them, their residents build again. Read for the way the settlement’s shared stories give the hill a history as quickly as its residents give it streets. Translated by Ruth Christie and Saliha Paker.0
Silence of Scheherazade (2021)Published Jan 1, 2021In The Silence of Scheherazade, a Levantine, a Greek, a Turkish, and an Armenian family give the same streets of Ottoman Smyrna different meanings. The intersecting households are the pleasure of this sprawling historical novel and a reason to read it slowly. Translated by Betsy Göksel.0
Leyla'nin Evi (2012)Published Jan 1, 2012In Leyla’s House, an eviction takes an elderly woman from a Bosphorus mansion into a neighborhood where a hip-hop singer becomes her friend. Choose it for how much an unlikely friendship can reveal about who feels at home in a changing city. Translated by Brendan Freely and Yelda Türedi.0
Motherland Hotel (2016)Published Jan 1, 2016A hotel owner near a railway station waits for a guest who said she would come back. This short novel turns check-ins and other ordinary hotel routines into the measure of a fixation. Read it when you want a place that feels smaller and more airless by the page. Translated by Fred Stark.0
Snow (2002)Published Jan 1, 2002A blizzard isolates Kars just as Ka, a poet returning from exile, arrives to investigate a wave of deaths. The closed roads make an already divided city feel like a room nobody can leave. Choose it for political intrigue tangled up with a homecoming. Translated by Maureen Freely.0
The time regulation institute (2013)Published Jan 1, 2013If a slow clock could earn you a fine, who would decide what time it really was? Hayri Irdal finds himself inside an institution with an elaborate scheme to standardize Turkey’s clocks. Pick this one for the comic pleasure of watching an official system become more elaborate than the problem it was…0
A mind at peace (2008)Published Jan 1, 2008On the eve of World War II, a love story unfolds in Istanbul. The novel gives music as much room as ideas or romance, a reason to choose it if you like a city revealed through what people listen to and remember. Translated by Erdağ Göknar.0
Bir deliler evinin yalan yanlış anlatılan kısa tarihi (2009)Published Jan 1, 2009The Highly Unreliable Account of the History of a Madhouse begins at an asylum near the Black Sea. Before you can settle on one person’s story, Ayfer Tunç has found someone connected to it and followed that thread. Try it for the pleasure of seeing a whole social world emerge from digressions.…0