Last Train to Istanbul

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When Selva, the daughter of one of the few remaining Ottoman Pashas, falls in love with Rafael, a young Jewish man, their families are against their marriage and disown them. Together they go to live in France, but happiness eludes them there too. With the advent of the Second World War they get caught up in Hitler's web of terror. While the Nazi grip tightens around them, they live with the fear of being rounded up and sent to a concentration camp. At the same time Turkey is desperately trying to avoid being drawn in to the war, walking the tightrope between the Axis and the Allies very carefully. In this new novel Ayse Kulin successfully follows through both the developments in her country during the war and the lives of Selva and Rafael in Europe. The story moves back and forth between Istanbul and Marseilles, Ankara and Cairo and Paris, to Berlin and back to Istanbul. In so doing it also highlights the courageous work of the Turkish diplomats who risked their lives to save hundreds of Jews stranded in Europe from being massacred by the Nazis. All of Ayse Kulin's novels are page turners and this one is no exception. It is a novel about love and escape, interwoven with the history of one of Europe's most tumultuous times.