Istanbul Istanbul

8vo, softcovr 252pp. 'A wrenching love poem to Istanbul told between torture sessions by four prisoners in their cell beneath the city. An ode to pain in which Dostoevsky meets The Decameron.' --John Ralston Saul, author of On Equilibrium and former president, PEN International 'Ten days, ten stories and ten chapters, like Boccaccio's The Decameron. Classical in structure and profoundly moving, this novel will, I predict, itself become a classic.' --Rosie Goldsmith, European Literature Network. Born in Central Anatolia in 1965, Burhan Sonmez grew up speaking Turkish and Kurdish. He worked as a lawyer in Istanbul, and was a founder of the social-activist cultural organisation TAKSAV (Foundation for Social Research, Culture and Art). He also wrote on literature, culture and politics for various newspapers and magazines. Burhan was seriously injured following an assault by Turkish police and lived in exile for some years. He now lectures at the METU University in Ankara. The recipient of a number of literary prizes, his novels have been published in over twenty countries.