This extraordinary novel is written by Turkey's most popular novelist. He tells the story through a narration by a 36-year-old woman in a clerical position at the University of Istanbul. Maya is assigned to accompany a visiting Harvard professor, Max, a German emigre who had spent a few years at the university from 1939-1942. We learn that dozens of Jewish intellectuals were brought to Istanbul by Attaturk in 1933 when they lost their jobs in Germany to build the university and the entire education system in Turkey. Integral to the novel is the history of Max's wife, a Jew who made it to Romania and almost escaped to Palestine. She was one of 769 Jews who died when the overloaded ship, the 'Struma', was expelled by Turkish authorities from Istanbul, and torpedoed by a Soviet submarine in the Black Sea. The novel and the translation are spot on and recommended.
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