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Goodbye Istanbul
Published by Diogenes as Goodbye Istanbul
Original Title: Savrulanlar
Two men are making life difficult for Ece. The first is her father. Since losing his arm in a work accident, he believes he has a right to be malicious and to tyrannise the members of his family whenever the whim takes him. The second is Tamer. Ece is in love with him – but he is married and, for many years now, has refused to leave his wife and children.
Finally, the young woman departs her beloved home town of Istanbul to seek her fortune in London. But life as an émigré is not what she had imagined. There is no real integration to speak of; rather, the Turks live in a parallel universe in which they hardly ever come in contact with England itself – and when they do, it is always negative. While cleaning dishes in a cheap barbecue restaurant, Ece is suddenly awash with memories. Images of her grandfather, himself an emigrant; as an Armenian silversmith in Istanbul, he too had been forced to start from scratch. But in the process, he met the love of his life – Ece's grandmother.
»The realism with which Esmahan Aykol depicts the century's great metropolises goes hand in hand with the narrative craft and wisdom of the Orient. A captivating novel.«
Milliyet Sanat, Istanbul
»The novel intertwines, in remarkable fashion, Anatolian legends with the bitter realities of immigrants today.«
Evrensel Kitap, Istanbul
»An extraordinary book about immigration, love and forgetting.«
Hürriyet, Istanbul