İstanbul Noir

Brand-new stories by: Muge Iplikci, Behcet Celik, Ismail Guzelsoy,

Lydia Lunch, Hikmet Hukumenoglu, Riza Kirac, Sadik Yemni, Baris Mustecaplioglu,

Yasemin Aydinoglu, Feryal Tilmac, Mehmet Bilal, Inan Cetin, Mustafa Ziyalan,

Jessica Lutz, Tarkan Barlas, Algan Sezginturedi, and others.

Surrounded by two seas, split by the Bosphorus Strait, and pierced by

the Golden Horn, Istanbul stretches between Europe and Asia. A city at once

ancient and modern, it is the quintessentially postcard-perfect metropolis. But

don't let the alluring vistas fool you: For beneath its veneer as the meeting

place of cultures, religions, and ethnicities, lies a heart of darkness,

seething with suppressed desire, boiling with frustration, and burning with a

fervor for vengeance. If there is a city with its own unique brew of noir,

Istanbul is it.

From the pitch-black and the ephemeral to the realistic and the

surreal, from the open-hearted and the fanatic to the malicious and sadistic,

from the butcher out for meat to the lamb who wants to live, these stories rip

away the enchanting facade to reveal the shadowy side of Istanbul's soul.

Comprised of entirely new stories by some of Turkey's most exciting

authors--some still up-and-coming, others well-established and critically

acclaimed in their homeland, as well as by a couple of "outsiders" temporarily

held hostage in the city's vice--Istanbul Noir introduces a whole new

breed of talent. As you succumb to the wiles of the city's storytellers,

however, be warned--their narrators are notoriously unreliable, and their

readers, even more so.

Mustafa Ziyalan was born in Zonguldak, on the Black Sea coast of

Turkey. He worked as a general practitioner and coroner in a rural Anatolian

village, and now lives and practices psychiatry in Brooklyn, NY. His poetry,

short fiction, and essays have appeared in many literary periodicals,

anthologies, and in book form. He is the author of the poetry book Kizil

Kanca Siirleri, Yakilacak Kentlerden, a collection of travel writing and

essays, and Su Kedileri, a collection of short fiction.

Amy

Spangler, a native of small town Ohio, first landed in Turkey as a high

school exchange student in 1994-95. She continued to foster her ties with the

country and her keen interest in its literature throughout her college years,

promptly moving to Istanbul upon graduation in 1999. She still lives in the

elusive and amorphous Istanbul, where she works as translator, agent, and

editor. She is the translator of Asli Erdogans novel, The City in Crimson

Cloak, and coowner of AnatoliaLit Literary and Copyright Agency

(www.anatolialit.com).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

PART I: LUST AND VENGEANCE"The Tongue of the Flames" ISMAIL

GUZELSOY (Buyukada)"Hitching in the Lodos" FERYAL TILMAC

(Bebek)"The Stepson" MEHMET BILAL (Sirkeci)"An Extra Body" BARIS

MUSTECAPLIOGLU (Altunizade)

PART II: PUSHING LIMITS, CROSSING LINES"The Smell of Fish" HIKMET

HUKUMENOGLU (Rumelihisari)"All Quiet" JESSICA LUTZ (Faith)"Around Here,

Somewhere" ALGAN SEZGINTUREDI (Saskinbakkal)"The Spriit of Philosophical

Vitriol" LYDIA LUNCH (Tepebasi)

PART III: IN THE DARK RECESSES"One Among Us" YASEMIN AYDINOGLU

(Sagmalcilar)"Black Palace" MUSTAFA ZIYALAN (Aksaray)"So Very Familiar"

BEHCET CELIK (Fikirtepe)"The Bloody Horn" INAN CETIN (Fener)"A Woman,

Any Woman" TARKAN BARLAS (Yenikapi)

PART IV: GRIEF GRIEVANCES"Ordinary Facts" Riza Kirac (4th

Levent)"Burn and Go" Sadik Yemni (Kurtulus)"The Hand" Muge Iplikci

(Moda)