Kemal Kuray is lucky to escape with his life after his beloved F-16 hurtles to the ground in a test flight. Convalescence comes in the form of a comfortable monthly allowance and an opulent apartment in a mysterious neighbourhood of Istanbul, inexplicably left to him by an acquaintance in the Air Force.
But there’s a price to pay. His Edgar Allen Poe-obsessed benefactor sets him on a wild goose chase from the back streets of Istanbul to the broad avenues of Buenos Aires, and finally to Poe’s grave in Baltimore. But what exactly is Kemal searching for? Missing persons, yes, but there’s more – he is looking for the embodiment of Poe’s most famous poem, ‘Annabel Lee’, ‘to love and be loved.’
Editorial Reviews
Review
Music-loving aesthete and Turkish air-force pilot, Kemal enters a weird twilight existence in Istanbul after his plane crashes and a secret benefactor sets him up in a grand house in the haunted streets of old Balat. There follows an entertaining, somewhat absurd Hitchcockian comedy-mystery, rich in dropped names and arty jokes. It sends Kemal to the US on the trail of (of all McGuffins) Edgar Allan Poe. For readers here this cheeky romp, briskly translated by Clifford and Selhan Endres, may appeal most for its atmospheric glimpses of an inexhaustible city.’ Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
‘Adventurous and original…one of the most important Turkish novelists of his generation.’
John Ash
‘Altun’s prose has a dreamlike urgency; his novel is a major achievement.’ —
John Asberry
Adventurous and original…one of the most important Turkish novelists of his generation.’ —
John Ash
Altun’s prose has a dreamlike urgency; his novel is a major achievement.’ –John Asberry
About the Author
Selcuk Altun was born in Artvin, Turkey in 1950. Telegram published Songs My Mother Never Taught Me in 2008. He lives in Istanbul and is a retired banking executive and bibliophile.
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