To The City: Life and Death Along the Ancient Walls of Istanbul
'A love letter to this ancient capital' THE TIMES
Walking along the crumbling defensive walls of Istanbul and talking to those he passes, Alexander Christie-Miller finds a distillation of the country's history, a mirror of its present, and a shadow of its future.
Caught between two seas and two continents, Istanbul lies at the centre of the most pressing challenges of our time. With environmental decay, rapacious development and tightening authoritarianism straining its social fabric to breaking point, it represents the precipitous moment civilizations around the world are currently facing.
In and around its crumbling Byzantine-era fortifications, Alexander Christie-Miller meets people who are experiencing the looming crisis and fighting back, sometimes triumphing despite the odds.
To the City seamlessly blends two narratives: the story of Turkey's tumultuous recent past told through the lives of those who live around the walls, and the story of Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II's siege and capture of the city in 1453. That event still looms large in Turkey, as Recep Tayyip Erdogan like a latter-day sultan invokes its memory as part of his effort to transform the country in an echo of its imperial past.
This is a meditation on the soul of Istanbul, a paean to its resilience and fortitude. Walk with Christie-Miller and see the danger, beauty and hope.
Review:
EARLY PRAISE FOR TO THE CITY
'A love letter to this ancient capital...a work of storytelling skill and passion, a handsome tribute to a city that always transfixes'
The Times
'The author is a sensitive and patient presence, piecing together these stories over many pages. Spending time at a teahouse, an animal shelter and a former Dervish hall that is now an academic institution, he brings to life the rich variety of these neighbourhoods. While Christie-Miller's focus remains on the streets surrounding the walls, his characters offer broader insights into Turkey's social and political make-up. He is also sensitive to the poetry of his surroundings, captured in moments of lyrical precision: "Behind them I saw the remains of the Byzantine sea wall hanging like a scrap of old parchment strung out to dry in the sun'
Financial Times
'Alexander Christie-Miller is an exceptionally fluent and imaginative writer who knows Turkey intimately'
Max Hastings
'An absorbing and thoroughly engaging study of modern-day Turkey. His research is first class, and he writes very well...Christie-Miller's love of the city and its people shines through this wonderful book'
Literary Review
'Between the ancient minarets that punctuate the city's skyline, the author seeks out the real soul of Istanbul in its diverse peoples, past and present, by raising up voices rarely heard'
National Geographic Magazine
'Alexander Christie-Miller has written a gripping portrait, with both the sweeping scope of a historian and the intimate, laser-like eye of a travel writer. This also a deeply humane account of a legendary city, not always well served by its leaders'
Daniel Metcalfe author of Blue Dahlia