Istanbul, Istanbul

Beneath the old streets and squares of Istanbul, four prisoners – Demirtay the student, the doctor, Kamo the barber and uncle Küheylan – wait in their cells until their interrogators come to pick them up. To kill time, the four men tell each other stories full of love and humour. The suppressed laughter that the riddles and fairytale stories evoke in them is balm for their souls. Gradually, the underground stories make way for above-ground stories, which increasingly take the city of Istanbul as their subject. Life in above-ground Istanbul turns out to be just as much about hope and suffering as life in the underground cells. Istanbul, Istanbul is a multi-layered novel about love and compassion and a tribute to the city of Istanbul and the power of the human imagination.