Sami Kent is a Turkish-British writer and radio producer based between London and Istanbul, and has reported on Turkey for The Guardian, BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, From Our Own Correspondent, Al Jazeera, The London Review of Books, Vice and many others.
His new book is The Endless Country: A Personal Journey Through Turkey’s First Hundred Years.
At the Guardian Kent tagged "five of the best books to understand [Turkey]’s first 100 years." One title on the list:
Portrait of a Turkish Family by Irfan OrgaRead about the other entries on the list.
Reflecting on his childhood, Orga remembers eating melon, on ice, on a silver plate when he first heard the drums of war – those that announced, all over Istanbul, that the first world war had begun. For him and others in Turkey, nearly a decade of violence would follow. This memoir captures the founding years of the Turkish republic and the pain of those who lived through it, as Orga describes his wealthy Ottoman family’s descent into poverty and humiliation. It is intimately and beautifully written, though make sure to read the epilogue for the twist about who the author really was …
--Marshal Zeringue
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