Istanbul Noir (Akashic Noir) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1933354623 ISBN 13: 9781933354620

Publisher: Akashic Books, Ltd., 2008

Synopsis

"The authors do an excellent job introducing readers to a city unknown to many American readers, exploring the many issues of religion and culture that face modern Istanbul. Landscape is essential to these stories, all of which convince the reader that they couldn't possibly have been set anywhere other than Istanbul."
--Booklist

"Istanbul straddles the divide of Europe and Asia, and its polyglot population of 12 million seethes with political, religious, and sexual tensions, as shown in the 16 stories in this strong entry in Akashic's noir anthology series...a welcome complement to the mostly historical mysteries set in Istanbul." --Publishers Weekly

Launched by the summer -04 award-winning best-seller Brooklyn Noir, Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies. Each book is comprised of all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book.

Brand-new stories by: Müge Iplikçi, Behçet Çelik, Ismail Güzelsoy, Lydia Lunch, Hikmet Hükümenoglu, Riza Kiraç, Sadik Yemni, Baris Müstecaplioglu, Yasemin Aydinoglu, Feryal Tilmaç, Mehmet Bilâl, Inan Çetin, Mustafa Ziyalan, Jessica Lutz, Tarkan Barlas, Algan Sezgintüredi, and others.

Surrounded by two seas, split by the Bosphorus Strait, and pierced by the Golden Horn, Istanbul stretches between Europe and Asia. A city at once ancient and modern, it is the quintessential postcard-perfect metropolis. But don't let the alluring vistas fool you--beneath its veneer of a beautiful meeting place of cultures, religions, and ethnicities lies a heart of darkness seething with suppressed desire, boiling with frustration, and burning with a fervor for vengeance. If there is a city with its own unique brew of noir, Istanbul is it.

From the pitch-black and the ephemeral to the realistic and the surreal, from the open-hearted and the fanatic to the malicious and sadistic, from the butcher out for meat to the lamb who wants to live, these stories rip away the enchanting façade to reveal the shadowy side of Istanbul's soul.

Comprised of entirely new stories by some of Turkey's most exciting authors--some still up-and-coming, others well-established and critically acclaimed in their homeland--as well as by a couple of "outsiders" temporarily held hostage in the city's vice, Istanbul Noir introduces a whole new breed of talent. As you succumb to the wiles of the city's storytellers, however, be warned--their narrators are notoriously unreliable, and their readers even more so.

About this title

About the Author

Mustafa Ziyalan was born in Zonguldak, at the Black Sea coast of Turkey. He worked as a general practitioner and coroner in a rural Anatolian village. Now he lives and practices psychiatry in Brooklyn, New York. His poetry, short fiction, and essays have appeared in many literary periodicals, anthologies, and in book form. Amy Spangler was born in Ohio and first landed in Turkey as a high school exchange student in 1994-95. She continued to foster her ties with the country and her keen interest in its literature throughout her college years, promptly moving to Istanbul upon graduation in 1999. She still lives in the elusive and amorphous Istanbul.

From Publishers Weekly

Istanbul straddles the divide of Europe and Asia, and its polyglot population of 12 million seethes with political, religious and sexual tensions, as shown in the 16 stories in this strong entry in Akashic's noir anthology series. Most of the stories are fittingly dark, though a couple are lit by a macabre humor: Hikmet Hukumenoglu's The Smell of Fish, about a woman's efforts to discourage suitors, and Algan Sezginturedi's Around Here, Somewhere, about a drug runner's attempted escape. Sadik Yemni's Burn and Go delivers a memorable account of a childhood accident's fearsome consequences. A lonely older woman and a polite young man share a ride in Feryal Tilmaç's fateful Hitching in the Lodos. Most contributors are either natives of Istanbul or longtime residents, and their stories reflect religious extremism (Jessica Lutz's All Quiet) and governmental repression (editor Ziyalan's Black Palace) as well as the disaffection common to the genre. This is a welcome complement to the mostly historical mysteries set in Istanbul. (Nov.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Akashic Books, Ltd.
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1933354623
• ISBN 13: 9781933354620
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 300
• Editor: Ziyalan Mustafa, Spangler Amy