My past was behind a curtain. I had to go to Feruzeh. I had to see her so I could open the curtain of both the future and the past. Two young people from foreign lands meet in a shop in Cambridge: Brani Tawo, a Kurdish political refugee from Turkey, and Feruzeh, who had fled to the UK from revolutionary Iran. Slowly, their love begins to grow, fed by stories, a shared love of literature and a subtle recognition of their mutual displacement. Brani Tawo narrates vignettes from his family history, vivid tales that evoke old legends: shepherds struck by lightning, soldiers returning home with war...

Istanbul is a city of a million cells, and every cell is an Istanbul unto itself.After a military coup, four prisoners - the doctor, Demirtay the student, Kamo the barber and Uncle Kuheylan - sit below the ancient streets of Istanbul awaiting their turn at the hands of their wardens. Between violent interrogations, the condemned share parables and riddles about their beloved city to pass the time. From their retelling of stories, both real and imagined, emerges a picture of a city that is many things to many different people. Their fears and laughter show us that there is as much hope and...

Hrdiny románu jsou čtyři vězni, namačkaní v úzké podzemní kobce ústřední istanbulské mučírny. V přestávkách mezi mučením si vyprávějí příběhy o Istanbulu, deset příběhů během deseti dní. Podobně jako hrdinové Dekameronu utíkají před epidemií moru, utíkají vězňové svými příběhy a sny před svým hrůzným osudem a vyplňují. Anekdotické příběhy často podle orientálních vzorů, vyúsťující v hádanky, se prolínají s neutěšenou skutečností podzemní mučírny. Zmučení vězňové se vžívají do reálných situací ve vnějším...

In 1940 the Second World War continued to rage, and atrocities wreaked around the globe made international waves. Wells, a socialist and prominent political thinker as well as a first-rate novelist, set down in The Rights of Man a stirring manifesto, designed to instruct the international community on how best to safeguard human rights. The work gained traction, and was soon under discussion for becoming actual legislation. Although Wells didn't live to see it enacted, his words laid the groundwork for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which enshrined human rights in law for the...