Ottoman Odyssey: Travels through a Lost Empire

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“In this book, journalist Alev Scott is banned from Turkey and takes a wonderful journey through the lands of the Ottoman Empire instead.” Read more...

Editors’ Picks: Favourite Nonfiction of 2018

Sophie Roell, Journalist

The book, according to the author

“The Ottoman Empire is bizarrely overlooked in the West, despite the fact that it lasted more than 600 years and stretched from the gates of Vienna to Mecca at its height, with Istanbul as its capital. Millions of Christians, Muslims and Jews lived together in relative harmony, in regions now racked by conflict. These are the books I read as I travelled around the ex-empire, looking at how the region has changed since its collapse in 1923. My resulting travelogue, Ottoman Odyssey: Travels Through a Lost Empire, was inspired by a mixture of historical fiction, contemporary letters and personal stories as well as my journey.”

Alev Scott, Five Books, 2018