Review
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“An illuminating view of post-imperial attitudes and
relationships from a very different empire.”
- Asian Review of Books
“Scott tracks the vine of Turkish influence, ‘architectural,
political and social,’ that laces through the Levant and the
Balkans.”
- New York Times Book Review
“Scott roams through elements of the Ottoman Empire in this
bright travel narrative. She laces history with footloose
journeying and the result is a restless, kaleidoscopic, and
chromatic portrait of a land in flux.”
- Christian Science Monitor
“An ambitious travel memoir/history, tracing the footsteps of
‘descendants of ancient minorities that were allowed to flourish
in the empire, and [were] then intimidated, ignored or expelled
from modern Turkey.’ The author grounds her thoroughly researched
narrative in history and past travel accounts, and she injects it
with earnest, wry observations and personal interviews with the
many interesting people she met along the way. In her quest to
understand her complicated, tense childhood, Scott treats us to a
lively grand tour of the lost Ottoman Empire and shows how
contemporary leaders exploit simplified versions of history to
support nationalist agendas.”
- Kirkus Reviews (starred)
“An inful and easily approachable combination of travelogue
and history. Essential reading for those interested in how
historical mythologies warp and contort individual lives.”
- Publishers Weekly
“Scott―whose mother is Turkish and whose her is British―gives
both an insider’s intimacy and an outsider’s necessary remove to
this excellent survey.”
- Booklist
“A brilliant travelogue. Beautifully written. This book is only
Scott's second, yet she writes with a maturity and in that
belies her age, and is surely a rising star of the literary
world. Her overall message is one of optimism: that identity is
as much about language as it is about location and religion; and
that a 'shared culture' will trump jingoistic national
differences. ”
- The Telegraph (UK)
“Alev Scott approaches the crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean by
side roads and unfrequented channels. Her book is clear, bright,
humane, and never disheartened.”
- James Buchan, author of 'Days of God'
“Beautifully written with clear-eyed judgments and a sharp ear
for fascinating anecdote and memorable characters. Exhilarating
and often eye-opening, it shows this crucial region of the world
from a new perspective. Essential reading for anyone interested
in Turkey and its history.”
- Michael Wood, author of 'In Search of Shakespeare'
“A lovely, lyrical, and always inful account that is as much
about the present as the past. A joy from start to finish.”
- Peter Frankopan, New York Times bestselling author of 'The
Silk Roads
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About the Author
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Alev Scott was born in 1987 to a Turkish mother and a
British her. She studied Classics at New College, Oxford,
where she was taught by Robin Lane Fox. After graduating, she
worked in London as an assistant director in theater and opera
before moving to Istanbul in 2011. Alev taught herself Turkish
and immersed herself in the Turkish side of her heritage and
wrote the widely accled Turkish Awakening: Behind the Scenes
of Modern Turkey, which was published by Faber in 2014. The book
was brilliantly reviewed by Norman Stone, Owen Matthews, and Elif
Shafak among others. She has since reported from Turkey for a
wide number of newspapers, most specifically for the Financial
Times.
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