Ayşe KulinRecensioni

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Good, not great. ?Followed a Jewish family that ended up in Turkey when Jews were being taken in Germany during WWII. Goodreads review: From the international bestselling author of Last Train to Istanbul comes a novel based on true events that explores the depths of pride, devotion, and persistence as four generations of a family struggle to forge their destinies.As Hitler?s reign of terror begins to loom large over Germany, Gerhard and Elsa Schliemann�like other German Jews¥must flee with their children in search of sanctuary. But life elsewhere in Europe offers few opportunities for medical professor Gerhard and his fellow scientists. Then they discover an unexpected haven in Turkey, where universities and hospitals welcome them as valuable assets.But despite embracing their adopted land, personal and political troubles persist. Military coups bring unrest and uncertainty to the country, intermarriage challenges the cultural identity of Gerhard and Elsa?s descendants, and anti-Semitism once again threatens their future in the place they call home.From World War II to the age of social media, one family?s generations find their way through love and loss, sacrifice and salvation, tragedy and triumph¥with knowledge hard won and passion heartfelt.

Multi-generational family saga that takes place mostly in Turkey over a period of over eighty years. It starts with a family of Jewish Germans fleeing Hitler prior to the start of WWII. The story begins in 1933 with Dr. Gerhard Schliemann, his wife Elsa, and their two children, Peter and Susy, leaving their home at short notice and eventually making their way to Turkey. Gerhard and other Jewish scientists are hired by a Turkish university to help with the modernization of their curriculum. Although Germany still attempts to exert influence to dismiss the Jewish scientists, the family overcomes many difficulties and makes Istanbul their home. The story then shifts to Susy, who has readily adapted to the Turkish culture, and continues following the family’s legacy into 2016.

This novel starts out strong. The story of the doctor and his family fleeing the Nazis is riveting. When the narrative shifts to future generations, it reads more like a biography of each subsequent family member, and the momentum slows considerably. It begins to focus on family dramas, romantic relationships, and misunderstandings. At this point, the storyline takes a backseat to the history of the country.

The author excels at providing descriptions of the cities, the countryside, and what it is like to live there. She imparts the flavor of the Turkish culture and conveys a strong sense of the country as a melting pot of various religions and ethnicities. I enjoyed gaining more understanding of how Turkey developed into a modern nation. Although this is a fictional account, the history is based upon actual events, including the influx of Jewish Germans, ongoing anti-Semitism, military coups, political upheaval, and civil unrest.

Overall, I found this book to be a mixed bag. I enjoyed the historic aspects and it tempts me to visit Istanbul someday. Unfortunately, the family saga lacked depth and cohesiveness. My sense is that the author tried to capture too much in too few pages.

A lyrical novel about the author's family history. The story ends with her parents marrying and her birth, but the focus until that point appears to be her aunt Sabahat's forbidden relationship with Aram, an Armenian. Interspersed are other family dramas, all presided over by the kind patriarch Resat Bey.

This book took me a long time to finish. The language was lovely and the slow pace of the novel necessitated my slowing down my reading speed. I loved the characters, though the large number of them and their relationships to one another took a long while to get straight. The backdrop for the novel is Turkey becoming an independent state and modernizing. This isn't something I was familiar with before, but I found it fascinating to see the change reflected in this one family through the years. Interspersed with the family's story is that of Muhittin, a young and promising engineer. Eventually, his story dovetails with that of the family's, as he is the author's father.

I will admit to be a bit disappointed that the focus changed toward the end away from Sabahat and Aram toward Muhittin and Sitare, because I really did want to see how their story resolved. I am heartened to see in the epilogue that the two eventually married but wished it was actually depicted in the pages of the book since it was such a large focus of the story.

Still, a lovely novel of a country and time that many in the US don't know much about. I'll definitely have to read more by this author. As an aside, the translator did a wonderful job, I thought.

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley.

Although the broad events of the book are non-fictional, the individual personalities are mostly fictional people representing the ones who were really there, so I kept this under fiction despite it being heavily weighted toward the real events taking place.

It was a little slow getting started, and I wasn't always sure why we were reading so much about Sabiha's jealousy and her therapy, ect. It seemed...out of place sometimes. I did end up enjoying the book, though, especially once we were in France with Selva and Rafo, and the tension really kicked in.

Last Train to Istanbul was slow to leave the station, but once it took off, what a ride it was! The first third of the book introduces various characters and their back stories. Older sister Sabiha and her diplomat husband, Macit, live in Ankara with their young daughter and Sabiha’s parents. Younger sister Selva married Rafael, a Jew, against her Muslim family’s wishes. Selva and Rafo found it more comfortable to live in Marseilles where they won’t have to face the disapproval from both families. Sabiha is the French tutor for Tarik, a young diplomat in her husband’s office, who develops an unrequited passion for Sabiha. His new language skills have him prepared when he’s promoted to a position in the Paris embassy.

The German occupation of France changes everything for Selva and Rafo. Their Turkish citizenship is the only thing keeping Rafo from being interred with the other Jews in France. As neutral Turkey faces pressure from both sides in the conflict, their diplomats in France don’t know how long they’ll be able to protect their Jewish citizens on French soil, so they begin to make plans for a train to take the Jews to Istanbul and out of German reach.

Although the characters in this novel are fictional, many are based on real people. The Turkish diplomats in France are said to have saved many Jews from the Holocaust. For instance, Necdet Kent, a Turkish consul in Marseilles during the war who died the year of this book’s release, claimed to have boarded a train filled with Jews (some Turkish) being deported to secure their release.

If I were a film producer, I’d option the film rights for this book. My film version would write out Sabiha, since I think the book would be stronger without her and her neuroses. Her diplomat husband, Macit, might become Selva’s brother, or maybe I’d have her father still working instead of retired. Tarik’s unrequited passion would be for Selva, who chose Rafo instead, and this love would inspire his actions to aid the Turkish Jews in fleeing France.

This is really a 3 ½ star book, but I’ve boosted it by half a star since I loved the last half so much.

This is a heartwarming tale of humanity set mainly in Turkey and France during the Second World War and Hitler's persecution of the Jews. It helped me to know of the people who, with extraordinary courage and compassion, helped thousands of Jews to escape the rotten fate waiting for them in the Concentration Camps. It also is a story of love, in all possible senses of the word. I really enjoyed the glimpses into the Turkish way of life this one offered, and am eager to read more.

Selva is the daughter of a traditional Turkish man who disowned her when she decided to marry Rafael Alfandari, son of a prominent physician--and a Jew. As much as it pained her to lose the connection to her family, Selva had to follow her heart. And to get out of the shadow of disapproval from both sets of parents, Selva and Rafael relocated to France where they had a son and made a life for themselves. But things changed quickly when the Nazis invaded France and began seeking out and rounding up Jews. While Turkey, being neutral in the conflict, has been able to keep some of their Jewish citizens from being taken, they worry that they may not be able to protect them in the face of continuing extreme approaches by Nazi officials. In an effort to keep their citizens safe, Turkish officials arrange for a train to bring a single car of Turkish citizens home. But for people like Selva, whose community includes friends who are not Turkish but are clearly in danger, there's a compulsion to take a risk to protect them. And it's a risk that could lead to consequences for everyone...

This is a wonderfully-written and well-researched piece of writing that I am so glad I took the time to read. While this period of humanity's history is challenging to approach and read about, I think it's incredibly important that we don't simply ignore it. And thankfully this story provides the contrast between those who acted with very little regard for others and those who are willing to risk themselves in service of doing what's right. You'll quickly become connected to these characters. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll enjoy an excellent story that embodies the better aspects of our nature.

horribly stupid

A nice book set around Turkey during WW2 and covering incidents in the lives of Jews.

It was interesting reading a book about the experience of a Jewish refugee family in modern Turkey, a country I’d known virtually nothing about. As much as I enjoy multigenerational family epics, this one left something to be desired; the pacing was off and some of the characters underdeveloped. The conception of religion felt reductive as well. I thought that angle could have been a lot more interesting, even if it were looked upon mainly as an expression of culture. It’s told but not shown that characters are Jewish, Muslim, or Christian. There isn’t a whole lot of religious content to their religions.

This is a compelling story about a part of history that I knew very little about before I began reading. That said, parts of it were better than others. I was debating with myself whether to give it five stars, but I had just a few niggles - a few poorly-written passages, a subplot that seemed completely pointless, and a climax that wasn't particularly climactic. However, this was very worth reading for its account of Turkish diplomats in Nazi-occupied Europe, and the lengths they went to to save their citizens from harm. I'm not sure how much of it is embellished, but the story told here is fascinating and well worth reading.

A plain, poorly written book that successfully makes occupied Istanbul seem completely boring.

My copy had a fake "Best Novel of the Year" logo/image added to the cover, which thankfully disappeared from later editions.

I read half of this and couldn't be bothered picking it up again.

A beautiful, well-written story. I enjoyed it very much. I will read more by this author.

The story is based on the role of the Turkish government in assisting Turkish nationals and other Jews from surrounding countries to return to Turkey. The characters and their stories were created by the author and don’t represent real figures of the era, but her research supports their experiences. I thought some of the writing was less than eloquent. I believe this is due to translation rather than the original writing as [[Ayse Kulin]] is a well-regarded novelist in her native Turkey. Translations can be so tricky.½

Amazon Crossing win!

This book was amazing! Such good storytelling. At times it was difficult to follow the timeline, but that's not really important. There are so many different people that all come together to make this story have a unique voice and emotion. A definite must-read!

This is a different WW II story because it is a fictionalized story of many Turkish and non-urkish Jews who escaped Hitler's grasp. It is based on real life experiences of Turkish ambassadors at the time who did their utmost of rescue people from the Reich machine. Interesting story with lots of character development and plot line.

I hate not liking a semi-autobiography, but this book was so-so. It’s about the author’s ancestors who fled Germany for Turkey in ww2. I learned a lot, but it was plodding. The author had a list of dates/events; filling them in with narrative. It felt like “and then this happened...” “some years later...” “and then this happened.” In contrast, my next book, Everyone Brave is Forgiven, also is a fictional story based an author’s ancestors in ww2. Only a few pages in it reads much more smoothly.

Took me awhile to sort out all the story lines, but the cultural and historical aspects kept me reading, and it really picked up steam. Fascinating story.

I really like historical novels so I liked that aspect of this story.
What I didn’t like was what seemed to be “sappyness” relating to the relationship between the two sisters and their families.
All in all it wasn’t a bad read but I had expected better from the write ups so was disappointed.
I doubt I’d recommend it to anyone.½

The history of the Balkans and specifically the Bosnian War is "genre kryptonite" for me, so it's not too shocking that this book rings all my bells. Following the main character, Nimeta, a Bosniack from Sarajevo, you get a journalist's perspective of events as they unfold and a greater understanding of the cultural and political forces that led to the conflict with all its complications.

Bu kitap akici, 90larin en populer kitaplarindan. Degisik bir zamandan, degisik bir yasantiya pencere aciyor. Kitabin icerigiyle ve yazarin yorumuyla ilgili bir sikayetim yok. Ama cok bosa harcanmis, kucuk girdaplar icinde harcanmis bir isiltili yasam hikayesi anlatilan....

Bu kitap Kurt-Turk sorununa ilimli bir bakis acisi getiriyor. Yazar arastirmasini yapmis, oykuyle bagdastirmis, ve guzel, akici bir kitap.

While I knew what would happen (Jews in WWII), I was surprised to learn about the connection they had with a Turkey, the Muslims & the Christians. It should be required reading to help fill in the huge blanks we, as Americans, have surrounding the Mid-East and their history/conflicts.

Čitljiva knjiga teške teme. Period II. svjetskog rata prikazan iz turske perespektive. Poučno i zanimljivo.