Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Death Begins with the Loss of Our Cities…
- Are You Going to Be a Killer?
- An Idea Whose Time Has Come
- Your Decision
- Dogs Smelling Blood on a Hunt
- The Meaning of This Empire for Us
- Confronting Death
- The Ancient Wound
- The Essence of the State
- Becoming the Hunted
- Like Two Wistful Flowers
- The World's Greatest Mystery
- The Love That Will Never Fade
- What Does a Single Individual Matter?
- A Game of Revenge
- The Motherland Is Lost
- The Only Thing Keeping Me Alive
- No Intention of Surrendering
- A Man's Word Is His Honour
- An Inappropriate Sense of Compassion
- A Token of a Conversation
- I Am Not the One to Decide
- Miracles
- The Ability to Forgive Ourselves
- Losing One's Humanity
- No Choice But to Fight
- Give Me an Honourable Death
- The Walking Dead
- Save Yourself, Soldier
- Wishing for Help from the Dead
- Resign, Your Excellency!
- A False Sense of Security
- The True Power in the Land
- Betrothed to Life, Married to Death
- When the Wolf Dies in the Forest
- This Is Not Ankara
- Vultures Circling Over an Old Man
- Ignoble Alliances
- A Betrayal of Their Own History
- Fighting for a Lost Cause
- Evil Stalks This Land
- A Malevolent Rain
- A Fragmented Homeland, a Disintegrating World
- Turning Us All into Killers
- When I Began Losing My Country
- Farewell, My Beautiful Homeland
- Glossary
Losing One's Humanity
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Death Begins with the Loss of Our Cities…
- Are You Going to Be a Killer?
- An Idea Whose Time Has Come
- Your Decision
- Dogs Smelling Blood on a Hunt
- The Meaning of This Empire for Us
- Confronting Death
- The Ancient Wound
- The Essence of the State
- Becoming the Hunted
- Like Two Wistful Flowers
- The World's Greatest Mystery
- The Love That Will Never Fade
- What Does a Single Individual Matter?
- A Game of Revenge
- The Motherland Is Lost
- The Only Thing Keeping Me Alive
- No Intention of Surrendering
- A Man's Word Is His Honour
- An Inappropriate Sense of Compassion
- A Token of a Conversation
- I Am Not the One to Decide
- Miracles
- The Ability to Forgive Ourselves
- Losing One's Humanity
- No Choice But to Fight
- Give Me an Honourable Death
- The Walking Dead
- Save Yourself, Soldier
- Wishing for Help from the Dead
- Resign, Your Excellency!
- A False Sense of Security
- The True Power in the Land
- Betrothed to Life, Married to Death
- When the Wolf Dies in the Forest
- This Is Not Ankara
- Vultures Circling Over an Old Man
- Ignoble Alliances
- A Betrayal of Their Own History
- Fighting for a Lost Cause
- Evil Stalks This Land
- A Malevolent Rain
- A Fragmented Homeland, a Disintegrating World
- Turning Us All into Killers
- When I Began Losing My Country
- Farewell, My Beautiful Homeland
- Glossary
Summary
Hello Ester (Afternoon, Day 8)
The rain stopped at noon but the sky was filled with leaden clouds, ready to open up again at any moment. I took a break from my writing and went down for lunch. Reşit was waiting for me by the marble column at the bottom of the staircase. He looked excited, rather than nervous or worried, a kind of sweet anxiety writ across his countenance. When he saw me, he rushed up to me.
‘Şehsuvar ağabey, your English is pretty good, isn't it? A writer has just arrived from England, a young lady. She writes detective novels, or something on those lines. I am going to accompany her to lunch and was thinking you could perhaps join us.’
I thought about Abdülhamid. Had he still been sultan, he would no doubt have been eager to meet the young English woman but I was not in the mood.
‘I'm sorry Reşit, I have things to attend to.’
His face fell.
‘That's a shame. Do you think my English will be enough?’
‘I'm sure it will’, I said, slapping him on the shoulder. ‘You'll be fine. Who knows, maybe she speaks French… Actually, that reminds me. What are you doing this afternoon? Shall we pay Cezmi a visit?’
He paused to think.
‘I can't. I have a meeting with the owner of the hotel. It will probably go on for some time. Competition between the Istanbul hotels is heating up, as I'm sure you are aware. We're going toe-to-toe with the Grand Hotel de Londres and the Tokatlıyan. Quality is key, and we're all trying to outdo one another. Please forgive me this once. Let's do it another day.’
He had just finished talking when a young lady appeared next to us.
‘Hello Mister Reşit…’
She had a long, thin face, a very fair complexion and greenish-blue eyes that sparkled with intelligence. Our hotel man immediately straightened up.
‘Hello, Mrs. Christie’.
He'd started well, despite his fears, and spoke quite well. Why didn't he have more belief in himself? But that's unmistakably us as a people. Always finding fault in ourselves, always wanting… To be honest, I was a little confused.
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- Information
- Farewell, My Beautiful Homeland , pp. 305 - 316Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2019