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
The Motherland Is Lost
- 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
Good Evening, Ester (Evening, Day 5)
Lady Luck has finally decided to smile upon me – tomorrow we are going to see Cezmi Kenan! Reşit and I spoke over dinner. I hadn't been planning on dinner with him. I had been getting ready to go to the Taksim Gardens, where, according to Ihsan, a new orchestra is scheduled to perform.
‘You'll like it, Şehsuvar Bey. They have a German tenor singing songs from Faust and La Traviata.’
Yes, I'm afraid it's true. I do like a bit of opera, an art form to which I was introduced in your house. I know you've never really taken a liking to it but your Uncle Leon loved it, so much so that he once went all the way to Venice to watch a performance of Verdi's Rigoletto. I remember him once jokingly saying, ‘It's is the only thing I have in common with Abdülhamit. We both love opera.’ Actually, my adventures with opera did not begin in Uncle Leon's law office but with a gramophone and a recording of Faust that were amongst the items we seized from the Italians during the war in North Africa. They may have objected at first but even the soldiers I was sharing a tent with soon got used to this most European of art forms and when I arrived at the Pera Palace Hotel, Reşit, upon hearing about my fondness for music, had a gramophone placed in my room.
So yes, just as I was about to leave for the Taksim Gardens to eat while listening to songs about Faust's deal with the devil, Reşit caught up with me in the lobby.
‘I'm afraid I cannot let you go, Şehsuvar Bey’, he said sternly. ‘This evening, you shall be my guest’.
I protested, telling him I had already been his guest that morning but he would not listen and quickly gestured for Ihsan to set our table. And yes, I know you're curious as to what we ate – we started with düğün çorbası, followed by paçanga böreği, beef fillets in a thick tomato sauce, roasted jellied pheasant and a chestnut dessert. And of course, to top things off, sweet Turkish coffee. While dining on this sumptuous feast, we discussed our forthcoming rendezvous.
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- Information
- Farewell, My Beautiful Homeland , pp. 179 - 196Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2019