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Book Info

ISBN 1 84659 028 0
Genre: Fiction
Release: Jan 2007
Format: 13 x 20 cm
Edition: Paperback
Pages: 400pp
Price: £ 7.99

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About the Author
Moris Farhi was born in Turkey in 1935. He has written several novels, including Children of the Rainbow and Journey through the Wilderness (both Saqi). He is a vice-president of International PEN, and in 2001 was awarded an MBE for services to literature. He lives in London.
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Young Turk - Reviews

'A novel of startling integrity and beauty.'

Independent on Sunday

'An unforgettable coming-of-age story ... exuberant, kaleidoscopic.'

New York Times

'Beautifully rendered, poetic and mystical ... A challenging, wry and rewarding read.'

Daily Mail

'A colourful mosaic on the theme of modern Turkish identity.'

The Guardian

'Enchanting.'

Financial Times

'Everyone should go out immediately and buy Moris Farhi's latest novel Young Turk ... Warm, witty, wise, humane, it's a delightful and moving book.'

Nicholas Murray, author of Kafka

Nominated for the Wingate and IMPAC awards.

'Exuberant ... a triumph of imaginative memory, on a par with WG Sebald's The Emigrants ... These are real stories - the type you'd stay up all night to hear.'

The Guardian

'A novel of startling integrity and beauty.'

Independent on Sunday

'Beautifully rendered, poetic and mystical ... A challenging, wry and rewarding read.'

Daily Mail

'This far-sighted, internationalist novel is a pleasure to read and makes most of this year's fiction look pale and anaemic in comparison.'

Scotland on Sunday

'The novel's energy and good humour sweep the narrative along.'

TLS

' ... erotic and intoxicating ... His is a quicksand sort of storytelling that sucks you in, redolent with poetry and heavy on the sex ... '

Big Issue

Young Turk is infused with a passionate humanism ... Both a novel of ideas and an entertaining adventure story ... a lyrical celebration of the multicultural heritage of Turkish history.'

The Independent

' ... enchanting ... a blend of memory and imagination, and like his previous novels imbued with deep humanity and sympathy ... love in its multiple manifestations pervades this wise, generous book.'

Financial Times

' ... exquisitely crafted ... With hints of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende, this is evocative and enthralling; Turkey is brought to vivid life in this beautiful book.'

Good Book Guide

'A great read.'

Sunday Independent

'Novel of the Week. Young Turk is a remarkable, evocative novel with great humanity and compassion on every page.'

The Tablet

' ... a haunting panoramic snapshot of a moment in time when ... friends and lovers, cousins and rivals, were young in an Istanbul whose sunny streets smelled of "sea, pine, honey and rose-water."'

Literary Review

' ... a timely, powerful book, full of haunting stories and unforgettable characters ... extraordinary ... a world full of life and passion, that speaks to us with enormous urgency.'

Jewish Chronicle

'This powerful, broad and compelling work is as enlightening as it is accessible ... Writing of this quality and passion is a gift.'

Time Out Istanbul

'[A] rare pleasure ... Hopelessly idealistic though he may be, as a writer Farhi is inspired.'

Cornucopia

'The world could do with more of the values [Farhi] espouses in Young Turk, of tolerance, moral courage, and the joys of exploring rather than crushing diversity.'

Saudi Gazette

'Young Turk is ... lusty, principled, charmed, idealistic and wide-eyed ...'

Daily Star

'Elegantly composed vignettes ... Intimate tales beautifully elucidate a richly heroic, romantically sensuous Turkish heritage.'

Kirkus

'Exceptional'

Buenos Aires Herald

'An unforgettable coming-of-age story ... In this exuberant kaleidoscopic book, politics and history are just part of the grand, feverish swirl of life.'

New York Times

'Captures the ephemeral, sensual and often brutal process of becoming an adult.' Publishers Weekly

'Farhi's tales are genuinely moving, and his characters' adventures shed light on a part of Jewish history about which many ... know quite little.'

Forward

'The story about the lady who seduces all the boys in a class at school, in alphabetical order, is unforgettable.'

Aftenposten

'Humour, compassion, joy, and distress guide this extraordinary cast of Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Sexual delight and erotic discovery suffuse the stories – lovemaking is God's superb benefaction to every man and woman on earth. The narrators obey this dictum with utmost content, and the novel becomes all the more enthralling for that.'

Ararat

'Moris Farhi is not only one of Turkey's most remarkable writers, but also one of the major pens of world literature.'

Fnac

'Like a Truffaut of the East, who prefers the pen to the camera ... A novel to be read urgently.'

French Elle

'Moris Farhi shames the willed littleness of British fiction with this novel. In Farhi's writing there is a distinctive collision of traditions which results in something funny, political and unique.'

David Hare

'Farhi has an unbeatable and enthralling human touch which gives the glow of life to all he writes. This is a treasure of a novel.'

Alan Sillitoe

'Those Turks favouring their country's entry to the European Union should erect a statue to Moris Farhi.'

Le Nouvel Observateur

'His characters are not merely Muslims; they are human beings ... that is what makes this novel so compelling.'

Paris Match

'Moris Farhi has written a joyous ode to diversity ... as a novel, Young Turk is a polyphonic bouquet.'

Le Monde

'Educative but sprightly, consistently entertaining, in a simple old-fashioned way.'

The Daily Telegraph


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Excerpts
In the beginning, there is Death.

All creatures meet it at birth. Animals never forget the encounter. With very few exceptions, we humans always do, even though we haggle with it several times a day. This commerce is never conducted with the brain or the heart, as we might expect, but with the genitals. The tinglings we feel between our legs are not always caused by sexual desire or fear. Mostly, they document our negotiations with the Clattering Skeleton.

These are facts. Straight from the mouth of Mahmut the Simurg. He is the Türkmen teller of tales from the circus who, true to his nickname, looks like a bird as large and dark as a rain-cloud.

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