Istanbul: Memories and the City

A shimmering evocation, by turns intimate and panoramic, of one of the worlds great cities, by its foremost writer. Orhan Pamuk was born in Istanbul and still lives in the family apartment building where his mother first held him in her arms. His portrait of his city is thus also a self-portrait, refracted by memory and the melancholyor hzn that all Istanbullus share: the sadness that comes of living amid the ruins of a lost empire.With cinematic fluidity, Pamuk moves from his glamorous, unhappy parents to the gorgeous, decrepit mansions overlooking the Bosphorus; from the dawning of his self-consciousness to the writers and paintersboth Turkish and foreignwho would shape his consciousness of his city. Like Joyces Dublin and Borges Buenos Aires, Pamuks Istanbul is a triumphant encounter of place and sensibility, beautifully written and immensely moving.