ISTANBUL PASSAGE: A Novel by Joseph Kanon Atria Books, a division of Simon and Schuster | May 29, 2012 From the acclaimed, bestselling author of Stardust, The Good German, and Los Alamos—a gripping tale of an American undercover agent in 1945 Istanbul who descends into the murky cat-and-mouse world of compromise and betrayal that will come to define the entire post-war era. A neutral capital straddling Europe and Asia, Istanbul has spent the war as a magnet for refugees and spies. Even American businessman Leon Bauer has been drawn into this shadow world, doing undercover odd jobs and courier runs for the Allied war effort. Now as the espionage community begins to pack up and an apprehensive city prepares for the grim realities of post-war life, he is given one more assignment, a routine job that goes fatally wrong, plunging him into a tangle of intrigue and moral confusion.
Played out against the bazaars and mosques and faded mansions of this knowing, ancient Ottoman city, Leon’s attempt to save one life leads to a desperate manhunt and a maze of shifting loyalties that threatens his own. How do you do the right thing when there are only bad choices to make? Istanbul Passage is the story of a man swept up in the aftermath of war, an unexpected love affair, and a city as deceptive as the calm surface waters of the Bosphorus that divides it.
Rich with atmosphere and period detail, Joseph Kanon’s latest novel flawlessly blends fact and fiction into a haunting thriller about the dawn of the Cold War, once again proving why Kanon has been hailed as the “heir apparent to Graham Greene” (The Boston Globe).
Praise forJoseph Kanon’s Stardust:
“Spectacular in every way.” —Lee Child
“No one writes period fiction with the same style and suspense—not to mention substance—as Joseph Kanon.” —Scott Turow
I’ve been asked a lot of questions about my research for Istanbul Passage, but the most frequent one (by far) is: where did you eat? So here’s a general answer with a few restaurant recommendations. None of these are out-of-the-way places. They’ll all be known to your hotel and most taxis.
Istanbul Passageis set in 1945 so most of the places where Leon, its protagonist, ate are long gone (as is his favorite watering hole, the bar at the Park Hotel) but a few places from that era still survive:
The bar at the Pera Palas (Mesrutiyet Caddesi) has been newly refurbished but all the old ghosts (including Agatha Christie) are still there. Pandeli, located over the Spice Market, Misir Carsi 1, has been an Istanbul mainstay for decades, and the restaurants in the Cicek Pasaji (Flower Passage) on Istiklal Caddesi, where Leon has lunch in the book, look much the same. So have a peek, if not necessarily a meal, then head for better food to:
Sofyali Sokak, a street near Tunel Square, just off Istiklal Caddesi, is lined with restaurants whose outdoor tables almost fill the street in good weather. Just grab the best table you can find and order mezes from the passing trays. A great Istanbul evening. Particularly recommended:
Refik at #10-12. Said to be popular with writers, a well-known meyhane whose walls are lined with caricatures of Istanbul media figures.
Flamm at #16/1. Slightly more inventive as well as standard mezes.
Sofyali at #9. Excellent mezes.
Views: Mikla, top floor of the Marmara Pera Hotel (Mesrutiyet Caddesi). If your budget isn’t quite up to this pricey (but good) restaurant, have a drink instead at the overhead rooftop bar. Probably the best view in Istanbul, magical at night.
Food: Hunkar in Nisantasi (upscale offshoot of the original in the old Fatih neighborhood). Turkish food at its best. Highly recommended.
Romantic splurge: Korfez in Kanlica on the Asian side. Have your hotel reserve. A private launch will pick you up on the quay near Rumeli Hissari and ferry you across the Bosphorus. After that romantic introduction, all is fresh fish and lights on he Bosphorus and illuminated fortress walls across the water— an unforgettable Istanbul experience.
More fish: Poseidon in Bebek, with a deck terrace over the Bosphorus. Balikci Sabahattin in Sultanhamet (nr. the Blue Mosque).
And don’t forget: street food is one of Istanbul’s joys: doner kebaps, stuffed mussels, towers of simits (sesame bread rings). Enjoy.
Author video for Istanbul Passage that we shot on site is finally ready. If you ignore me and look at the extraordinary city behind, you’ll get a sense of what’s in the book. Hope you enjoy. http://www.simonandschuster.com/multimedia?video=1494197938001
Taking a break from correcting page proofs of Istanbul Passage. I’ve seen this process countless times— from both sides of the desk—and there’s still something magical about a book taking physical form, all those legal pad pages with scratch-outs (word?) suddenly neatly in type, an idea now something tangible. I’m not a Luddite— it’s ok by me if books migrate to the ether or the cloud or wherever it is they’re going— but I hope we don’t lose the wonder of this.
Of course this is also the time when you wish you could re-write the whole thing, but that’s another matter.
Overheard yesterday in a doctor’s waiting room:
Receptionist: Oh hi! Nice to see you. Did you get married?
Patient: No. I just had the surgery.
Nothing like a visitor from out-of-town to remind one of the cultural riches of New York. Took in the beautiful Moghul Portraits at Asia Society, the fascinating Cindy Sherman show at MOMA, an evening at the theater (Other Desert Cities), then collapsed in front of the Oscars while the visitor kept going (a whole day at the Met).
Just back from Lisbon. The long sleep of the Salazar years preserved much of the center city in a kind of amber (new high rise business districts further out). So just the kind of city designed to be a thriller background—peeling facades, quiet squares, old trams, 40s window fronts. All it needed was mist rolling in from the river and a man in a hat lurking in a doorway..
Instead, we had sunshine (lunch outside), great seafood, the world class Gulbenkian Museum, and some of the most reasonable prices in Europe (a bargain compared to,say, Paris).
So highly recommended on both counts—thriller atmosphere And appealing present. Watch out for the pastries, though.
Reading Wolfgang Leonhard’s memoir, one of the few first-hand accounts of growing up in Stalin’s Russia. Still interesting but now a time capsule of a book—nothing dates faster than yesterday’s politics.
Check out more Istanbul photos here.
Everybody wants to be in pictures. While we were shooting the author video for Istanbul Passage, we found just a camera tripod was a magnet for people. You can see a few of them in the photos I’ve posted. At first, I thought a matter of curiosity, but it turned out all of them wanted Their pictures taken.
The fisherman at Rumeli Hisari, for instance, kept walking back and forth into the video shot until we asked him if we could take his picture. Broad smile. Fishing pole posed. The group of schoolgirls were less cagey—they just asked us outright, then wanted to see the pics.
The spice seller in the spice market in Eminonu was more worldly—he’d lived in Brooklyn. The boy on Galata Bridge was just keeping warm over the fire. Finally, the two beauties on the ferry are from Kazkhstan. They asked us (in Russian) whether the ferry was going to Uskudar. Turns out the video director had majored in Russian studies (what were the chances?) and could answer them, so they stuck close. Both dressed to the nines, with enough perfume to clog even the stuff breeze blowing down the Bosphorus. They hadn’t yet seen Topkapi or the Blue Mosque or much of anything really except the high end shops in Nisantasi. Were there any good stores in Uskudar? And I thought isn’t this what people were doing hundreds of years ago—coming to Istanbul to shop? The timeless city. Hope you enjoy the pics.
Source s1250.photobucket.com
Source books.simonandschuster.com
Joe Kanon and Jesse Kornbluth were great friends in college. Then they moved to the same city and hadn’t done more than wave across crowded rooms in almost thirty years. But as soon as they sat down for this interview, it was as if they were having coffee after an analysis of a great novel in some college English class. The only difference was that the great novel they were dissecting was Joe’s. Jesse Kornbluth: We all had big plans in college. Were yours to write a novel—or become a publisher?
Joseph Kanon: I had already begun to work in publishing at college as a reader for the Atlantic Monthly. At graduation, I assumed I’d be in publishing, but first I went to England and got a master’s degree in English Literature. And then I came back to New York and had a series of publishing jobs, the way one does. For a long time, I was an editor, but while I was at Dutton, I became Publisher and then President. With that change, I became less editorial and more management.
Kornbluth: You’re good with numbers? You don’t freak out when you see a budget?
Kanon: The secret of all good management is to get a good Chief Financial Officer. So I did. (more)
Source randomhouse.com
