Children: A Poem from Cahit Kulebi, Turkey
Prowling the bookstores on Iskitlal Street, Istanbul’s famous pedestrian walk-way, I came on a volume of poems in English Translation …
Category Archives: Books
The Rage of the Vulture: Barry Unsworth in Turkey
Barry Unsworth, the English Booker Prize winning novelist has written many memorable books, perhaps best known being Sacred Hunger (1992), …
Turkey Unveiled: A History
Turkey, whether as part of the Roman, the Byzantine or Ottoman Empires has been for millenia the hub to the …
Adrienne Rich: Gone
III from Adrienne Rich’s “Twenty-One Love Poems:” via www.danagoldstein.com Since we’re not young, weeks have to do time for years …
Standing Alone: Lives of Light
Here’s a book I wish I’d had in the run-up and early years of the US invasion of Iraq. There …
Tony Judt: Thinking the Twentieth Century
Tony Judt, one of the vital public intellectuals of our time, died of ALS in August of 2010. Against all …
Violence Is My Theme — Vladimir Sorokin
Add this to my lengthening to-read-before-you-die list: From The Telegraph’s Best Fiction Books 2011: Moscow, 2028. A scream, a moan, …
The Mule – A Novel from Spain
Spain was the country of some former life of mine, I’m sure. I loved living there as a younger man …
Memed, My Hawk — A Novel from Turkey
What a wonderful thing it is to travel to distant lands, and far-away times in the hands of a master …
Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds
I am one of those cautious travelers who would not dream of parachuting into a place without knowing something about …
I Fell From A Bike Today
I fell from a bike today, hard. At sixty eight, four feet seems not so far until whacked by gravity …
Judgment Day
I’m getting ready for my day of judgment approaching breath by breath. Preparing in the sunlight, fog or sleet, preparing …