İstanbul Boy, Part 1

Aziz Nesin (1915-1995), the master of folk literature in Turkey, introduces himself and his artistry through a charming series of vignettes on his boyhood in Istanbul, in a style reminiscent of the American writer James Thurber. Nesin’s memories of life in the “twenties,” during the radical transformation from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic of Turkey, document the social effects of the changes as they occurred, giving this book a socio-historical significance as great as its literary merit.