Recommendations
for Istanbul

Aziyadé

Pierre Loti|French edition
Aziyadé (1879; also known as Constantinople) is a novel by the French author Pierre Loti, which was initially published anonymously and led him rapidly to fame. The book is based on diary notes and a romance by the author, who in 1876 witnessed the struggles for supremacy in the Balkans and the agony of the former great power Turkey.
Pierre Loti was a Turcophile French naval officer who was in the Ottoman Empire between 1876 and 1877. Aziyadé (1879), a novel of letters, tells the autofictional love story of a naval officer (he has the same name as the author) against the background of the declining Ottoman Empire. In Constantinople (today's Istanbul), the novel character Loti disguises himself as a Turk and adopts the national language in order to pass for a native. read more

The Museum of Innocence

Orhan Pamuk
Orhan Pamuk's "The Museum of Innocence" tells a disturbing, unusual love story that reflects the disruption of a society between Western and Turkish traditions.

The Flea Palace

Elif Shafak
The Bonbon Palace is a shabby tenement in Istanbul. The stories of its residents are a reflection of the bustling city on the Bosporus.

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