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Ah, village life! The
quiet streets, the soothing routine,
the local characters, the simple comforts
of a simple home...right in the midst
of a bustling,
brawling city of 12 million people?!
That's what Mary Ann and Ben Whitten
discovered when they moved to Heybeliada,
an island just off the coast of Istanbul in the Sea
of Marmara.
Inhabited for centuries as summer
residences for the wealthy, the Princes'
Islands (Adalar in Turkish)
still hold many fine old Ottoman-Victorian-era
houses, some in need of repair.
Mary Ann and Ben were up to the challenge,
or, I should say, the challenges—many
and varied—of finding, buying,
repairing, restoring, owning and living
in a comfy,
characterful house on
an island in the middle of a sea and
a city.
The writing is fluent and accessible,
the scenes nicely drawn, the local
scene captured with insight, sympathy
and humor.
I visited the Whittens on Heybeliada in the spring of 2007. I laughed out
loud! When I entered their house it
was all familiar, even though I had
never laid eyes on it before. After
reading An Island in Istanbul:
At Home on Heybeliada, it
was though I had lived in the house
myself.
What a treat!
The Whitten's Istanbul is
a world away from whatever you may
have heard or experienced about this
ever-intriguing city, and yet it is
recognizably Istanbul in all its beauty,
frustration and reward.
A delightful, insightful read!
Click
here to buy it online from Nettleberry (recommended)
Click here to buy it online from Amazon.com
An Island in Istanbul:
At Home on Heybeliada, by
M. A. Whitten
Istanbul: Adali
Yayinlari/Islander
Editions, July 2006
ISBN 975-9119-05-6, softcover, 13.5cmx19.5cm,
200 pages, US$12
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