The New York Times Book Review - Jason Goodwin
King's timely new book…tells how interwar Istanbul transformed itself from the Ottoman imperial capital to a European city of refugees, jazz bars, muezzins and spies. Today's city is a rare blend of Islam and democracy, and King has made a brilliant attempt to establish an English-language narrative for it…Charles King has combed out the threads of this complex and highly nuanced story in a hugely enjoyable, magnificently researched and deeply absorbing book.
Publishers Weekly
07/14/2014
Istanbul in the interwar years was a city in transition: the multilingual, multiethnic ancient seat of the Islamic caliphate and the Greek Orthodox Church became in half a generation an aggressively modern, secular Turkish metropolis, its gaze shifted from orient to occident. “The city whose very geography united Europe and Asia became the world’s greatest experiment in purposeful reinvention in the Western mold,” says King, professor of international affairs at Georgetown University. He tells the story of Istanbul through the eyes of the Pera Palace, the city’s most glamorous hotel and witness to assassinations, bombings, and the “intrigue... seemed to be the city’s common currency.” This is a case study in rapid social change, redolent of incense and gunpowder, a cultural biography of one of the few cities that can claim the title of capital of the world. King investigates the fate of eunuchs when the harem had been disbanded forever and explores how cinema overtook the traditional art of shadow puppetry. A diverse cast, ranging from Muslim beauty queens and Georgian royalty to Leon Trotsky, have left their mark on Istanbul, and King nimbly weaves their threads with enough color to draw in general readers and enough detail to satisfy specialists. Photos. (Sept.)
Robert D. Kaplan
"Superb—deliciously dense with detail and sheer narrative force as Charles King tells the twentieth-century history of the Near East through the prism of one great city. A sepia-toned classic!"
Simon Winchester
"In this memorably distilled history, Charles King tells us just what the Pera Palace was—the ornately decaying hotel crouched at the center of a mare’s nest of intrigue, violence, sex, and espionage, all set against the slow dimming of Ottoman magnificence. I loved this book."
Jason Goodwin
"King has combed out the threads of this complex and highly nuanced story in a hugely enjoyable, magnificently researched and deeply absorbing book."
Christian Science Monitor - Randy Dotinga
"Fascinating and perceptive."
Seattle Times - Melissa Davis
"[A]n engaging, detailed look at the old city that became the newest of them all in the interwar years."
Stephen Kinzer
"This social history of one of the world’s most fascinating cities is as illuminating as it is entertaining. Characters from Trotsky to Hemingway, from a blind Armenian musician to a future pope, help tell the story of how Istanbul transformed itself from a refugee-clogged backwater into a vibrant metropolis. Midnight at the Pera Palace is a true Turkish delight."
Joseph Kanon
"Popular history at its best, authoritative and hugely entertaining. Few places were as colorful as Istanbul between the wars and Professor King captures all the chaotic brio and contradictions of a city, and a culture, reinventing itself."
Boston Globe - Kate Tuttle
"Elegant… multiple biographies unfold against the backdrop of an old city’s growing pains."
JANUARY 2015 - AudioFile
Grover Gardner’s deep, versatile voice narrates the downfall of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of modern Turkey in this detailed history. From its opening in the early 1890s, the Pera Palace has been a center of activity for Westerners. Its many guests have included businessmen; refugees from numerous wars, pogroms, and other disasters; political refugees such as Leon Trotsky; and a multitude of spies—Nazi, Soviet, British, American, and French. Gardner recounts the cavalcade of characters and epic events with subtle inflections and clear pronunciation. The events of 1914-1918 and the influx of refugees from the Russian Revolution and Civil War are particularly interesting. Gardner’s skill in delivering terms in several languages, along with his other strengths, makes this a production well worth listening to. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2014-06-11
A dense but smoothly recounted history of Istanbul’s transformation from parochial imperial capital to multinational modern city.A scholar of wide-ranging interests and nimble prose, King (International Affairs/Georgetown Univ.;Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams, 2011, etc.) finds in the history of the Pera Palace—first established in 1892 in what was then a fashionable neighborhood of embassies on Istanbul’s European side of the Bosphorus—an elegant entree into Turkey’s complicated coming-of-age. Around the turn of the century, the city was choked by migration from the countryside, scarred by recurrent earthquakes and fires, and finally crisscrossed by a railroad, an extension of the glamorous new line of the Orient Express. Adapting the Pullman model, Belgian engineer Georges Nagelmackers instituted the European version of the sleeping car for luxurious accommodation on the long trip between Paris and the gateway to Asia, Istanbul. The Pera would offer a continuation of that modern European comfort. The first decades of the 20th century brought cataclysmic change to Istanbul, with the breakup of the Ottoman Empire and occupation by multinational forces at the end of World War I. In this atmosphere, the hotel became the center of Allied administration and its nearby streets, “a shocking testament to Istanbul’s newfound libertinism.” This was not lost on Turkish officer Mustafa Kemal, who rallied the nationalists for a war of liberation, ending with the declaration of the Turkish Republic of 1924. Bought by a Muslim businessman in 1927, the Pera remained a beacon of cosmopolitan licentiousness between the world wars—within a city roiling with bars, alcohol, music and Western films—yet it eventually became part of a shift to a more Muslim, Turkish, homogeneous population that began producing its own popular culture. The emancipation of women, flirtation with leftist ideals, struggle to remain neutral in World War II and use as a transit point for the exodus of Jews posed unique challenges to this vibrant city.Staggering changes deftly chronicled by a seasoned historian.
