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Midnight at the Pera Palace
- Author
- Charles King
- Narrator
- Grover Gardner
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date
- 15 September 2014
- Run Time
- 12 hours 12 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
At midnight, December 31, 1925, citizens of the newly proclaimed Turkish Republic celebrated the New Year. For the first time ever, they had agreed to use a nationally unified calendar and clock.
Yet in Istanbul—an ancient crossroads and Turkey's largest city—people were looking toward an uncertain future. Never purely Turkish, Istanbul was home to generations of Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, as well as Muslims. It welcomed White Russian nobles ousted by the Russian Revolution, Bolshevik assassins on the trail of the exiled Leon Trotsky, German professors, British diplomats, and American entrepreneurs—a multicultural panoply of performers and poets, do-gooders and ne'er-do-wells.
During the Second World War, thousands of Jews fleeing occupied Europe found passage through Istanbul, some with the help of the future Pope John XXIII. At the Pera Palace, Istanbul's most luxurious hotel, so many spies mingled in the lobby that the manager posted a sign asking them to relinquish their seats to paying guests.
With beguiling prose and rich character portraits, Charles King brings to life a remarkable era when a storied city stumbled into the modern world and reshaped the meaning of cosmopolitanism.
Critics Review
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“Grover Gardner’s deep, versatile voice…[and] skill in delivering terms in several languages, along with his other strengths, makes this a production well worth listening to.”
AudioFile
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“The ornately decaying hotel crouched at the center of a mare’s nest of intrigue, violence, sex, and espionage, all set against the slow dimming of Ottoman magnificence. I loved this book.”
Simon Winchester, New York Times bestselling author of Krakatoa
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“Popular history at its best.”
Joseph Kanon, New York Times bestselling author
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“A hugely enjoyable, magnificently researched, and deeply absorbing book.”
New York Times Book Review
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“Multiple biographies unfold against the backdrop of an old city’s growing pains.”
Boston Globe
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“An engaging, detailed look at the old city that became the newest of them all.”
Seattle Times
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“Fascinating and perceptive.”
Christian Science Monitor
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“Highly recommended for anyone interested in war or religious history.”
Library Journal
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Details
- Author
- Charles King
- Narrator
- Grover Gardner
- Duration
- 12 hours 12 minutes
- Release Date
- 15 September 2014
- ISBN
- 9781483049373
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Genre
- Middle Eastern history
Synopsis
At midnight, December 31, 1925, citizens of the newly proclaimed Turkish Republic celebrated the New Year. For the first time ever, they had agreed to use a nationally unified calendar and clock.Yet in Istanbul—an ancient crossroads and Turkey's largest city—people were looking toward an uncertain future. Never purely Turkish, Istanbul was home to generations of Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, as well as Muslims. It welcomed White Russian nobles ousted by the Russian Revolution, Bolshevik assassins on the trail of the exiled Leon Trotsky, German professors, British diplomats, and American entrepreneurs—a multicultural panoply of performers and poets, do-gooders and ne'er-do-wells.During the Second World War, thousands of Jews fleeing occupied Europe found passage through Istanbul, some with the help of the future Pope John XXIII. At the Pera Palace, Istanbul's most luxurious hotel, so many spies mingled in the lobby that the manager posted a sign asking them to relinquish their seats to paying guests.With beguiling prose and rich character portraits, Charles King brings to life a remarkable era when a storied city stumbled into the modern world and reshaped the meaning of cosmopolitanism.
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