Tanpinar's 'Five Cities'

In 'Five Cities' ('Beş Şehir'), Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar focuses on cities significant in Anatolian history and his own emotional life. Part history, part autobiography, part poetic meditation on time and memory, 'Five Cities' is Proustian in style with a tension between a backward-looking melancholy and a concern for the unpredictable future of the author's country.

Ruth Christie studied Turkish language and literature at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, UK. She has translated a large number of works of Turkish fiction and poetry into English.