- Books
- ›
- History
- ›
- Middle East
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Turkish Awakening: A Personal Discovery of Modern Turkey Paperback – Import, May 27, 2014
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherFaber & Faber Non-Fiction
- Publication dateMay 27, 2014
- Dimensions5.31 x 0.98 x 8.5 inches
- ISBN-100571296572
- ISBN-13978-0571296576
Discover the latest buzz-worthy books, from mysteries and romance to humor and nonfiction. Explore more
Customers who bought this item also bought
Product details
- Publisher : Faber & Faber Non-Fiction; Main edition (May 27, 2014)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0571296572
- ISBN-13 : 978-0571296576
- Item Weight : 13.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.31 x 0.98 x 8.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #8,179,249 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,129 in Travel Tips (Books)
- #2,002 in General Middle East Travel Guides
- #3,444 in Turkey History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book easy to read and understandable. It provides a personal insight into Turkish culture with modern content.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book an easy read that provides a personal insight into Turkish culture. They appreciate the author's honest depiction of the mentality and her description of her experience in a fluid way. The book is a good introduction to Turkey for travelers.
"...is just the kind of book I wanted, to bring me up to date in a highly readable way with what is happening in Turkey today...." Read more
"Easy read of a country in flux" Read more
"...Very readable in a non-fiction style." Read more
"...sense of magnanimity this book is sad, funny, brutally honest depiction of Turkish mentality!..." Read more
Customers appreciate the author's modern approach. They find her writing intelligent and covering sensitive topics with a fresh perspective.
"...With a fresh, modern intake, she beautifully describes her experience in such a fluid way that this book is a true page-turner. Highly recommended!!" Read more
"This book is up to date, modern and gives a wonderful personal insight into Turkish culture...." Read more
"Excellent, comprehensive, non judgemental, intelligent, modern, covered every sensitive issue, good reading for travellers to Turkey." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2015This is just the kind of book I wanted, to bring me up to date in a highly readable way with what is happening in Turkey today. In addition to a warm-hearted assessment of the people and their traits of character, it covers a multitude of social, cultural and political aspects, concluding in a cool-headed opinion about where the country is now going. It is the kind of book I would like to have written about Turkey.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2018Easy read of a country in flux
- Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2014We have just finished four days in Turkey and loved it. I found this book very helpful to what is going on in modern Turkey. Our amazing local guide gave us excellent history to round out our knowledge. This book seemed to have accurate information and was an excellent introduction for someone (me) who knew nothing about the culture. Very readable in a non-fiction style.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2014With a tinge of unmistakable English sense of magnanimity this book is sad, funny, brutally honest depiction of Turkish mentality!
A humble correction: Mersin is not in the east.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2014This was an interesting book - but longer than it needed to be. I wish I had read it before going to Turkey rather than after the trip as there would have been things that prehaps I would have been more aware.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2014Anyone even mildly interested in the cultural (and political) melting pot of Turkey will greatly benefit from Alev Scott's detailed insight into this fascinating country. With a fresh, modern intake, she beautifully describes her experience in such a fluid way that this book is a true page-turner. Highly recommended!!
- Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2017The writer awakens to the realisation that the warm, passionate, friendly, courteous, generous, romantic, humane, charming, benevolent, compassionate, gregarious, welcoming, hospitable, patriotic, and proud, proud, proud Turkish people are, really, just like Americans and just like you and me if only we were passionate, friendly, courteous, generous, romantic, humane, charming, benevolent, compassionate, gregarious, welcoming, hospitable, patriotic, and proud, proud, proud of being who we are. "kiss me. I'm Turkish" is the next bumper sticker.
- Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2016For much of the way, this personal narrative remains the best contemporary account in English I have so far found about Turkey. The daughter of a mini-skirted Turkish Cypriot who left for London in the 1960s, Alev comes to her adopted motherland in this new century full of curiosity. She aims to report to us with neither too much or too little slant about her honest observations. In topical chapters these range over communication barriers, etiquette, sexuality straight or gay, religious and secular clashes and compromises, political tensions, economics, and then the history and culture of the nation beyond what is often the inevitable focus of most Western ex-pats on the concrete megapolis of 13 million Istanbullus.
While the latter part of the presentation bogs down in socio-political analyses, the scope of Scott's survey is welcome. She gets beyond the social studies titles on Turkey. Her slightly distanced stance as one familiar with Turkey at a distance via her mother meshes neatly with what is apparently a privileged upbringing including the classics, which she memorably tries to teach at a broken-down public university in Istanbul.
Finally, be sure to get the cover of the book as shown here. It's an updated 2015 edition. This integrates, not only with two end-chapters, but in a revised text throughout, her eyewitness account of the Gezi Park protests. Part Orwell's 1984 and part Hugo's Les Miserables, as she phrases it, the police crackdowns and the protesting crowds demonstrate the clashing symbols of a nation she defines as still very young and "insecure."
Top reviews from other countries
- AMRIReviewed in Spain on February 25, 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars First class journalism
Easy reading, broad coverage, direct experience. While a little bit outdated, the presentation of different aspects of Turkish society and their assessment from a liberal, multicultural viewpoint, is very well done.
- Ritu KhannaReviewed in India on May 25, 2018
3.0 out of 5 stars A beginner's guide to Turkey. As I know the ...
A beginner's guide to Turkey. As I know the country reasonably well, it didn't really offer me much additional information.
- Jean MReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 27, 2017
5.0 out of 5 stars Well written
This was an excellent book, well written and clarified for me some of the cultural mysteries encountered when I visit Turkey which is quite frequently.
It is an easy read lacking the jargon that is often associated with this type of book.
Turkey is a large, lovely , interesting, country very diverse .
Istanbul is very unique with so much to offer.
Let's hope Alev Scott follows this book with more of the same observations as we move on in this troubled world.
- CindyReviewed in Italy on November 12, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful
As a Peace Corps Volonteer in Turkey way back in the Sixties, I found Ms Scott's observations of the same society fifty years on most interesting.
- RobynFreeReviewed in France on October 25, 2016
3.0 out of 5 stars A metropolitan view
An interesting review by an expat Turk who returned to their homeland but is limited to experiences of Istanbul. Provincial Turks are different. Also much has changed since 2014 and the political and economic instability of the country is more pronounced now. The impact of Syrian refugees on Istanbul and Turkey generally are not apparent.