Books from Türkiye

As the Second World War threatens to engulf Europe, Selva, the daughter of a prominent Ottoman family, falls in love with Rafael Alfandari, a young Jewish man. Their relationship defies the expectations of both families, forcing them to leave Turkey and begin a new life together in France. But when the Nazis occupy the country, their happiness is overshadowed by the growing danger facing Jewish communities across Europe. As persecution intensifies, Selva and Rafael find themselves trapped in a hostile world where their love and their young family may not be enough to keep them safe. Meanwhile, Turkish diplomats work behind the scenes to rescue Jewish people stranded in occupied Europe, arranging a perilous journey towards freedom. With time running out, the fate of Selva and Rafael becomes intertwined with the courage of those willing to risk their lives to save strangers. Moving between Ankara, Istanbul, Paris, and other wartime cities, Last Train to Istanbul combines an intimate family story with a little-known chapter of Holocaust history. Inspired by accounts of Turkish diplomats who helped rescue Jews during the war, the novel explores love across cultural boundaries, moral courage, and the extraordinary acts of humanity that can emerge in the darkest times.

In the small Anatolian village of Eskibahçe, Muslims and Christians have lived side by side for generations, sharing a language, traditions, friendships, and everyday life. At the heart of this close-knit community is the tender love between Philothei, a beautiful Greek Christian girl, and Ibrahim, a Muslim goatherd who has loved her since childhood. Their future seems possible—until the forces of history begin to tear their world apart. As the Ottoman Empire collapses and modern Turkey emerges, the villagers are swept into the First World War, the rise of nationalism, and the brutal Greek-Turkish conflict. Through the voices of ordinary people, de Bernières creates an expansive portrait of a society destroyed by religious divisions, political ambition, and forced displacement. Both heartbreaking and darkly humorous, Birds Without Wings explores how people who once lived as neighbours can become enemies—and how love and humanity endure even amid extraordinary cruelty.

Istanbul, 1975. Kemal, the privileged son of a wealthy family, is preparing to marry Sibel, a woman who belongs to his own sophisticated social circle. But a chance encounter with Füsun, a beautiful young shop assistant and distant relative, sets his carefully ordered life on an unexpected course. Their passionate affair soon becomes complicated by social conventions, class divisions, and the expectations placed on women in a rapidly modernising Turkey. When Füsun disappears from his life, Kemal begins collecting objects connected to her: earrings, hair clips, cigarette butts, and countless other seemingly insignificant things. Each item becomes a vessel for memory, allowing him to preserve moments that time would otherwise erase. Over the years, his collection grows into an extraordinary personal museum, reflecting both his devotion and his inability to let go. Spanning decades of Istanbul’s social and cultural transformation, The Museum of Innocence is a richly layered exploration of love, obsession, memory, and longing. Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk transforms ordinary objects into fragments of a vanished world, asking whether preserving the past can bring happiness—or merely keep us imprisoned within it.

In 1920s Turkey, Sabahat is a bright, determined young Muslim woman who dreams of an education and a life beyond the traditional expectations placed on women. Persuading her family to let her pursue her studies, she begins to imagine a future shaped by her own ambitions rather than an arranged marriage. But her plans take an unexpected turn when she falls in love with Aram, an Armenian Christian student. Their feelings deepen despite the religious and cultural divisions separating their families. In a society where interfaith relationships challenge deeply rooted traditions, their love becomes a source of both hope and conflict. As family loyalties and social pressures threaten to tear them apart, Sabahat and Aram must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice to remain together. Inspired by Ayşe Kulin’s own family history, Love in Exile is a sweeping romance set during a period of profound transformation in Turkish society. It explores forbidden love, women’s independence, religious difference, and the painful choices people face when personal happiness conflicts with family expectations.

Serenade for Nadia follows Maya Duran, a single mother working at Istanbul University who is asked to assist an elderly German-born professor, Maximilian Wagner, during his visit to Turkey. Initially puzzled by his unusual behaviour, Maya gradually discovers that his connection to Istanbul reaches back to the Second World War. Through his memories, she learns about a forbidden love story and the fate of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution aboard the ship Struma, which sank in 1942. As the past emerges, Maya confronts painful aspects of Turkish history and the human consequences of political decisions. Livaneli weaves together romance, historical tragedy, and contemporary social tensions, exploring how love can endure across decades while examining the responsibilities of remembering those whose lives were lost through war, prejudice, and indifference.

In contemporary Istanbul, Fanis Paleologos is a charming widower and a respected member of the city’s dwindling Rum community, Greek Orthodox Christians whose families have lived in Istanbul for centuries. His quiet routines are disrupted when Daphne, an American-born woman of Greek and Ottoman heritage, arrives in search of her roots. Her presence awakens old memories of the woman Fanis once loved and lost during the devastating 1955 Istanbul pogrom. Meanwhile, Kosmas, a talented pastry chef hoping to find a suitable wife within his community, also falls for Daphne and attempts to win her heart through his culinary skills. As romantic rivalries unfold amid afternoon tea, traditional pastries, and lively neighbourhood gatherings, long-buried family secrets threaten to complicate their hopes for happiness. Blending humour, romance, and history, Nektaria Anastasiadou’s novel explores cultural identity, the meaning of home, and the resilience of a community determined to preserve its traditions despite decades of discrimination and upheaval.