Turkey

The Passenger #10

by Various

Shipwrecks Under Istanbul by Elif Batuman - Nations Within Nations by Asli Erdoga - How Turkish TV Is Taking Over the World by Fatima Bhutto - Also: the failed coup that was thirty years in the making; the rise of femicide in New Turkey; the flooding of a 12000 year-old town; the political satirist resisting censorship; the communist mayor, business à la Turque, and much more…

The birth of the “New Turkey”, as the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called his own creation, is an exemplary story of the rise of “illiberal democracies” through the erosion of civil liberties, press freedom and the independence of the judicial system. Turkey was a complex country long before the rise of its new sultan: born out of the ashes of a vast multi-ethnic and multi-religious empire, Turkey has grappled through its relatively short history with the definition of its own identity. Poised between competing ideologies, secularism and piousness, a militaristic nationalism and exceptional openness to foreigners, Turkey defies easy labels and categories. Through the voices of some of its best writers and journalists–many of them in self-imposed exile—The Passenger tries to make sense of this fascinating, maddening country, analyzing how it got to where it is now, and finding the bright spots of hope that allow its always resourceful, often frustrated population to continue living, and thriving.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Essays, Asia

192 pages, Paperback

Published February 9, 2020

About the author

Various is the correct author for any book with multiple unknown authors, and is acceptable for books with multiple known authors, especially if not all are known or the list is very long (over 50).

If an editor is known, however, Various is not necessary. List the name of the editor as the primary author (with role "editor"). Contributing authors' names follow it.

Note: WorldCat is an excellent resource for finding author information and contents of anthologies.

Reviews

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great essay collection. I’d recommend it for both neophytes and people who have traveled to or learned about Turkey in some depth already.

[Unaformiga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro maravilloso para conocer las entrañas de un país como Turquía. Quiero destacar la calidad literaria tan impresionante de todos y cada uno de los artículos. Tanto la documentación como la manera de narrar son espectaculares.

Se tratan temas diversos como el feminismo islámico en un país en el que asesinan a más de una mujer al día; el genocidio armenio ocupa un buen lugar así como las protestas de Gezi Parkı que se han convertido casi en una identidad nacional de aquellos que salieron a protestar para evitar la construcción de un centro comercial en un espacio verde y al final acabaron revolucionando al país entero y protestando por la dictadura encubierta del gobierno de Erdoğan.

Me he metido de lleno en el mundo de las series turcas y todo lo que hay detrás (no sabía que está prohibido que las mujeres turcas lleven #hiyab en televisión) y he podido entender cómo de fuerte es la censura y la poca libertad de expresión que sufren los medios turcos en el país.

Si todas las ediciones de esta colección son igual de trabajadas y documentadas, puedo aseguraros que podéis llegar a conocer las entrañas de cualquier país leyendo estos artículos. Aquí los que destaco de esta edición:

- Eros y Tánatos en el restaurante, de Sema Kaygusuz
- El rap turco, de Begüm Kovulmaz
- Lápices afilados, lápices rotos: dos décadas de sátira entre denuncia y censura, de Valentina Marcella
-Taksim United: de cómo el parque Taksim Gezi unió a los ultras más irreconocibles, de Stephen Wood.

Al final hay una sección en el que un autor destacado de dicho país hace una serie de recomendaciones: libros, canciones, películas… En este caso es @sahfakelif quien nos recomienda la canción “#Susamam” que en turco significa “No puedo quedarme callado”. Sin palabras.

[Eirion · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prima volta che leggo questa collana e ne sono rimasta molto soddisfatta.
Non ha nulla a che fare con una guida, si tratta di una raccolta di saggi dedicata a un paese (qui la Turchia) per conoscerlo meglio.

15. Mesi della cultura straniera
(Challenge del 2021)

[Emilie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love a good essay collection and the Passenger collections are fantastic. They choose diverse writings that are well written and interesting. I learnt a lot about Turkey!

[Omer · Rating 5 out of 5]

My love affair with Turkey reached fever pitch this July 2022, when I spent two weeks there. To achieve some closure, I purchased The Passenger: Turkey in August, as a dear friend had already read and recommended another iteration - The Passenger: India.

It was a remarkable, eclectic journey into the past, present, and future of this fascinating nation. As an apolitical person, I found the language accessible and the array of essays and ideas insightful. With playlists and further reading lists thrown into the final pages of this tome, I am no closer to the “closure” that I had hoped for… but I guess that is the way of true love.

[Alex Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was given this book by a friend who knows of my interest in Turkey. I put off reading it for a while as I thought it was a Lonely Planets style book, but it is quite different - a collection of essays about modern Turkish life with a very left-wing, anti-Erdogan stance. I really enjoyed it for what it is, a lot of really interesting vignettes on Turkish life, history, art and culture. A bit uneven, I enjoyed some essays much more than others - but overall very enjoyable, and increased my desire to visit Turkey as a tourist one day.

[Federico · Rating 4 out of 5]

Avevo già letto quello della Svezia e anche questo devo dire che mi ha stuzzicato.

La sensazione è quella di essere in una rubrica di un tg con un taglio su costume e società della turchia.

Molto interessante la questione delle etnie, daii curdi agli armeni, ma anche quella delle tifoserie di Istanbul storicamente nemiche che però si uniscono in un movimento di protesta antifascista.

Carina la parte di visual data, i consigli di libri e film e la playlist su Spotify.

Mi sarebbe piaciuto anche qualche spunto culinario con storia annessa.

[Sergio G. Roa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Literatura de viajes de calidad, te permite conocer como es la sociedad turca sin salir de casa. Diferentes artículos, de escritores o periodistas turcos o que viven allí, sobre temas muy variopintos, desde el rap turco pasando por las telenovelas turcas o el último golpe de estado ocurrido pasando por los disturbios del Parque Gezi. Es imposible condensar más la idiosincrasia del país en menos páginas.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of essays. They are very helpful for understanding where Turkey is now and how it got there. The point is not to agree with every contributor in the book, but rather to appreciate their point of view.

I look forward to reading about other countries in this Passenger series of books. I'm grateful our library has them!

[Emin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than any guidebook to understand modern Turkey. Series of articles by various authors.

I enjoyed the ones about Turkish Rap music, the story of the Marmaray dig and the one about the coup attempt was a nice overview.

[Annalisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una piccola perla, proprio come tutti i libri della collana The Passenger. Tanti articoli eterogenei, mai banali o scontati, per cercare di capire meglio un Paese sorprendente e dalla bellezza mozzafiato ma pieno di cicatrici e contraddizioni.

[Alessia · Rating 5 out of 5]

In realtà sono 4.5. Ho trovato il volume islandese molto più bello, ma vista la tensione in Turchia capisco bene la scelta di affrontare temi più "pesanti" in questo volume.

[Paola Tartaglino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amo questa collana, ma stavolta ho fatto un po' fatica a terminare la lettura, per me meno coinvolgente del solito, sebbene mi interessasse molto scoprire di più sulla Turchia.

[Giorgia Zenobio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Collana super consigliata se si programma un viaggio e non. Con una serie di editoriali, fa entrare perfettamente nello spirito del Paese/ città protagonista. Prossimo: The Passenger Napoli

[Jim Swike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gives a great insight into Turkish Culture. Enjoy!

[Karin · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with the other books in this series I've read, it's a great way to take a deep dive into a culture.

[Claire Akkan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been reading this for truly more than a year, because every time I pick it up, F. has boatloads of his own commentary to add (which I love!). The Passenger has issues for a number of different countries—I read the Japan issue before visiting in March. They ask contemporary authors to write pieces about what I would call the culture beyond the headlines. This issue has articles about Turkey’s fanatic football clubs, the ships buried in the Bosphorus (written by one of my favorite authors, Elif Batuman), and Turkish humor magazines. The essays always illuminate something bigger about society. The football clubs story, for example, was told in the context of the 2016 Gezi Park protests, one of the biggest popular uprisings in the country’s recent history. I would highly recommend looking up this series for any country you’re traveling to in the future—it’s way better than a travel guide.

[Umberto Mínguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Libro muy interesante en formato similar a una revista. Trata varios temas referentes al país con los que hacerte una idea general de la cultura, política y demografía turca. Muy interesante sobre todo para amantes de la narrativa de viajes.