“Somewhere in Burhan Sonmez’s recently translated novel Istanbul Istanbul, one of the prisoners declares to his fellow inmate that “hope is better than what we have”. This hope comes not from the city of the title, but from the stories and lives that make up this city. Istanbul Istanbul is a novel set in a prison, and in prison, the means of survival are as creative and distinct as the prisoners themselves.

In order to continue existing, the protagonist has to build an alternative reality, for a prison is built precisely to wipe out his or her existence. The prisoner, therefore, dons the garb of a storyteller.”

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