A Strangeness in My Mind

At a family wedding Mevlut catches sight of a girl with whom he falls in love. After a secret courtship of letters passed via his cousin, she agrees to elope with him, and on a dark night the two come together for the first time. As they rush to catch a train to Istanbul, Mevlut realises he has been misled. But the die is cast, and the situation will determine the rest of his days.

Over the next four decades in Istanbul, Mevlut works various jobs to support his loving wife and family; work that gives him a special perspective on his rapidly changing city and the people who live there. And every evening he walks the streets, selling his wares and dreaming his dreams.

A magnificent novel. (Wall Street Journal)

Powerful and moving. (TLS 'Books of the Year')

Magnificent . . . Prepare to fall in love with this everyman, this vendor of street-level history whose cry echoes down the years. (Independent on Sunday)

Life-affirming story telling at its best. Written with humour, warmth and generosity, capturing the country's political upheaval and the extraordinariness of ordinary human life . . . A dazzling portrait of the author's beloved Istanbul. (Mail on Sunday)

A polyphonic novel about desire, memory, change and the lost pleasures of walking around Istanbul's long-gone neighbourhoods. (FT 'Books of the Year')

With its comedy, sentiment, melodrama and voracious curiosity about the urban habitat, this is Pamuk's most Dickensian work . . . City and soul converge. (Independent)