The Endless Country: A Personal Journey Through Turkey's First Hundred Years

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'Captivating. Kent effortlessly weaves travels that are close to his heart into a bigger story of Turkey's past and present' - Mishal Husain 'A rich, spellbinding book: dense with people, stories, history, colour, lived experience . . . The book is alive on every page' - Neel Mukherjee, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Lives of Others The Endless Country takes a journey through Turkey's past - the nation the author's father left decades ago and he returns to as a young man. It is not about Erdogan or Atatrk, the two towering Presidents who have book-ended that history, and at times have appeared impossible to escape. Instead Sami Kent's book goes deep beyond them, revealing a history as rich, layered and absurd as his family's favourite dessert, knefe: a shredded wheat pastry with a core of melted cheese, a topping of pistachios, and a drowning of syrup. From tiny weightlifters to the world's biggest prison, from a failed socialist commune to a wildly successful orchid ice cream, the book is a tribute to the sheer bewildering diversity of Turkey's past: its people, their ideas and their struggles. 'This is surely how history should be told - human, fun, alive' - The Telegraph

Reviews

The Endless Country is a resoundingly successful attempt to tell Turkeys history the first 100 years since the founding of the republic through Kents own story of coming back to the land of his father. But more than that: by talking to people and visiting places involved with each decade of that century, Kent brings the past alive * The Guardian *
This is surely how history should be told human, fun, alive * The Telegraph *
Captivating. Kent effortlessly weaves travels that are close to his heart into a bigger story of Turkeys past and present -- Mishal Husain
Sami Kent's journey in search of his father's country yields a rich, spellbinding book: dense with people, stories, history, colour, lived experience. He is a beguiling and charming guide through the complexities of Turkey. The book is alive on every page. -- Neel Mukherjee, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Lives of Others
A must-read for anyone who wants to understand Turkey . . . from a touching family biography to a wonderful travelogue to an excellent treatise of Turkeys rich and complicated political history -- Soner agaptay, author of Erdogan's Empire
Turkey's complicated first century comes to life through Sami Kent's judiciously chosen stories, which he tells with compassion and depth alongside his search for the meaning of his own heritage . . . It is hard to find a more complete insight into a country that few writers really know, and even fewer can explain. -- Hannah Lucinda Smith, author of Erdogan Rising
[Kent] leverages his journalistic acumen to offer a vivid and nuanced portrait of the nation . . . * The Daily Star *
An insightful, moving and beautifully crafted portrait of a nation * Literary Review *

Author Bio

Sami Kent is a writer and radio producer based between London and Istanbul. He has reported on Turkey for The Guardian, BBC Radio 4, Al Jazeera, The London Review of Books and many publications. He has also made several radio documentaries for the BBC, and is now working for The Guardian's award-winning podcast 'Today in Focus'. The Endless Country is his first book.