Five of the best books about Turkey

Sami Kent is a Turkish-British writer and radio producer based between London and Istanbul, and has reported on Turkey for The Guardian, BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, From Our Own Correspondent, Al Jazeera, The London Review of Books, Vice and many others.

His new book is The Endless Country: A Personal Journey Through Turkey’s First Hundred Years.

At the Guardian Kent tagged "five of the best books to understand [Turkey]’s first 100 years." One title on the list:

I Will Never See the World Again by Ahmet Altan

In 2016, writer Altan was arrested and sent to prison, along with his brother and tens of thousands more – the victims of Turkey’s purges after its failed attempted coup. Yet still Altan wanted to write. And so, over a period of seven months, he smuggled out handwritten notes to his lawyers, slowly putting together a memoir of his time in Silivri, Turkey’s biggest and most notorious jail. Written with a novelist’s precision, it is a testament to Turks’ enduring belief in the power of stories. “Like all writers, I have magic,” Altan writes. “I can pass through your walls with ease”.

Read about another entry on the list.

I Will Never See the World Again is among Joe Moran's best books to help us survive a crisis.

--Marshal Zeringue