Amy Marie Spangler on Leyla Erbil’s dark vision of Istanbul’s history
September 2, 2025
Turkey Book Talk #252 – Amy Marie Spangler on the late great author Leyla Erbil’s What Remains. Amy co-translated the novel, along with Alev Ersan and Mark David Wyers, for an edition that will be published by Deep Vellum in October.
First appearing in Turkish in 2011, two years before Erbil passed away, What Remains is a multilayered narrative that sweeps the reader from the Byzantine Empire to 20th century Turkey. It is also a dark elegy to the Istanbul of eras past and all that has been lost in its transformation.
Amy is the co-founder of the AnatoliaLit literary agency, so our conversation also touches on broader trends in Turkey’s contemporary literary marketplace and the growing role of AI.
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Read a transcript of the interview on Substack
Also check out Amy’s previous appearance on Turkey Book Talk in June 2022, discussing another Leyla Erbil novel, A Strange Woman.
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Turkey Book Talk #237 – Brett Wilson, associate professor of history and public policy at Central European University, on his translation of Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglu‘s 1922 novel “Nur Baba” (Routledge).
The book’s account of a debauched Bektashi Sufi lodge caused a sensation at the time, raising eyebrows with its scandalous depiction of an immoral, even degenerate religious community in turn-of-the-century Istanbul.
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Read a transcript of the interview on Substack
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Support Turkey Book Talk as a member on either Substack or Patreon. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, access to transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to the subject of every episode.
Ralph Hubbell on Turkish literary giant Oğuz Atay
December 3, 2024
Turkey Book Talk #233 – Ralph Hubbell on translating Oğuz Atay‘s “Waiting for the Fear” (New York Review Books).
Atay is widely seen as one the great Turkish fiction writers of the 20th century, but he has largely yet to appear in English until now. “Waiting for the Fear” is made up of eight short stories and was first published in Turkey in 1975. At under 200 pages, it’s a relatively slender work – a striking contrast with Atay’s most celebrated novel, the sprawling “Tutunamayanlar” (The Disconnected).
The conversation talks about Oğuz Atay’s exploration of paranoia, alienation and absurdity, the humour in his work, as well as his life and the notorious difficulty of translating his fiction.
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Read a transcript of the interview on Substack
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Support Turkey Book Talk as a member on either Substack or Patreon. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, access to transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to the subject of every episode.
Turkey Book Talk #215 – Andrew Finkel on his novel “The Adventure of the Second Wife: The Strange Case of Sherlock Holmes and the Ottoman Sultan” (Even Keel Press).
Andrew is a veteran journalist based in Turkey for decades. His debut novel is a sprawling, playful narrative exploring the mystery of Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II’s obsession with Sherlock Holmes stories.
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Turkey Book Talk #199 – James Meyer, associate professor of Islamic World History at Montana State University, on “Red Star over the Black Sea: Nazım Hikmet and His Generation” (Oxford University Press).
The book is a new biography of the great 20th century poet Nazım Hikmet (1902-1963). It draws deeply on previously untapped archival sources from Moscow, Istanbul, Amsterdam and Washington, situating him within a broader generation of border-crossing Turkish communists.
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Read excerpts from Chapter 11 of the book.
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Turkey Book Talk #190 – Maureen Freely on the life and work of the late Tezer Özlü.
Her translation of Özlü’s 1980 novel “Cold Nights of Childhood” has just been published for the first time in English by Serpent’s Tail.
First published in 1980, the book follows a narrator whose life closely mirrors Özlü’s own, growing up in Istanbul before periods in Berlin and Paris, unhappy marriages, and tortuous stays in psychiatric institutions. Despite being set against the backdrop of a uniquely turbulent era in Turkey’s modern history, the book is also characterised by its sexual frankness and political ambivalence.
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Turkey Book Talk episode 170 – Amy Marie Spangler on the great author Leyla Erbil (1931-2013) and her novel “A Strange Woman“. Spangler just co-translated a new English edition of the book, published by Deep Vellum, building on an original translation by Nermin Menemencioğlu.
First published in 1971, “A Strange Woman” weaves together the story of a young woman entering adulthood in Istanbul of the 1960s and 70s with vignettes from modern Turkish history, as well as reflections on class divides and the ambiguous position of intellectuals in society.
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Also check out Amy’s previous appearance on the podcast from July 2018.
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Maureen Freely on rediscovering leftist Turkish novelist Suat Derviş
November 23, 2021
Turkey Book Talk episode 155 – Maureen Freely discusses the eventful life of leftist woman novelist Suat Derviş (1904-1972), as well as her recently published translation of Derviş’s “In the Shadow of the Yalı” (Other Press).
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Maureen Freely’s previous appearances on Turkey Book Talk:
Episode 18 – On Sabahattin Ali and translating ‘Madonna in a Fur Coat’
Episode 86 – On the life and work of Sait Faik Abasiyanik
Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
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Turkey Book Talk episode #119 – Magdalena Zaborowska, professor of literature at the University of Michigan, on her book “James Baldwin’s Turkish Decade: Erotics of Exile” (Duke University Press)
The book looks at the great African American author’s extensive periods living and working in Istanbul from 1961 to 1971.
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Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk and get loads of extras: A 35% discount on any of over 100 books in IB Tauris/Bloomsbury’s excellent Turkey/Ottoman history category, English and Turkish transcripts of every interview upon publication, transcripts of the entire archive of episodes, and an archive of 231 reviews written by myself covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics.
Turkey Book Talk episode #100 – Holly Shissler, associate professor of Ottoman and Modern Turkish History at the University of Chicago, on the life and work of Ahmet Mithat Efendi (1844-1912).
Ahmet Mithat is among the most important men of letters in the late Ottoman era. The publisher of the newspaper Tercuman-i Hakikat, he was also the author of many fictional works including Felatun Bey and Rakim Efendi, which appeared in an English translation from Syracuse University Press in 2016, and which Shissler wrote an afterword for.
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Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk and get a load of extras: A 35% discount on any of over 400 books in IB Tauris/Bloomsbury’s excellent Turkey/Ottoman history category, English and Turkish transcripts of every interview upon publication, transcripts of the entire archive of episodes, and an archive of 231 reviews written by myself covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics.
Sign up as a member to support Turkey Book Talk via Patreon.
Maureen Freely on the life and work of Sait Faik Abasiyanik
January 29, 2019
Turkey Book Talk episode #82 – Maureen Freely on the enduring appeal of Sait Faik Abasiyanik (1906-1954), perhaps Turkey’s greatest short story writer.
Freely co-translated, with Alexander Dawe, a selection of Sait Faik’s stories, published in English as “A Useless Man” (Archipelago).
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I’m delighted to announce that IB Tauris/Bloomsbury have agreed to renew the exclusive discount for Turkey Book Talk members. Join as a member to get access to a 35% discount on any of over 400 books in IB Tauris’ excellent Turkey/Ottoman history category.
Members also get (English and Turkish) transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the entire archive, and an archive of 231 reviews written by myself covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics.
Sign up as a member to support Turkey Book Talk via Patreon.
Lora Sarı on the life, photography and writing of Ara Güler
December 11, 2018
Turkey Book Talk episode #79 – Lora Sarı talks about the life and work of the late great Ara Güler.
Lora is an editor at Aras, an Armenian-focused publishing house that recently published “We Will Live After Babylon”, a collection of Güler’s largely fictional writings, penned mostly in the 1940s and 50s before he started taking photographs.
Download the episode or listen below.
Also check out a previous episode with Lora Sarı talking about Mıgırdıç Margosyan’s “Infidel Quarter” and the broader work of Aras.
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Join as a member to support Turkey Book Talk and get (English and Turkish) transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the entire archive, access to a 30% discount on over 200 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of 231 reviews written by myself covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics.
Sign up as a member to support Turkey Book Talk via Patreon.
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