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A Strangeness in My Mind
by Orhan Pamuk
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In 1969, twelve-year-old Mevlut Karataş leaves his Anatolian village to join his father in Istanbul. He works as a street vendor, selling yoghurt, rice and boza while informal neighbourhoods expand across the city’s hills. After seeing a girl at a wedding, he writes love letters for three years and elopes, only to discover that family interference has changed the identity of the woman waiting for him.
Mevlut’s marriage, friendships and shifting occupations unfold against military coups, political violence, property speculation and the commercial transformation of Istanbul from 1969 to 2012. Multiple narrators reveal how relatives have shaped his choices while presenting their own versions of loyalty and success. His nightly walks preserve an older intimacy with the city even as the streets and communities he knows are rebuilt around him.
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