#TopTenTuesday Books Set in Turkey/Türkiye #TuesdayBookBlog

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

• Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want.
• Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.
• Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists.
• Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is a freebie on the theme of Thankful/Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving isn’t a thing here in the UK but I know it is in the US and one of the traditions associated with it is the President “pardoning” two live turkeys. So going off on one of my weird tangents, here are ten books set all or partly in Turkey/Türkiye.

Links from the titles will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads. 

1. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie – ‘Just after midnight, a snowdrift stops the Orient Express in its tracks. The luxurious train is surprisingly full for the time of the year, but by the morning it is one passenger fewer.’
2. My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk – ‘A transporting tale set amid the splendor and religious intrigue of sixteenth-century Istanbul.’
3. The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak – ‘One rainy afternoon in Istanbul, a woman walks into a doctor’s surgery. ‘I need to have an abortion’, she announces. She is nineteen years old and unmarried. What happens that afternoon will change her life.’
4. A Woman of Opinion by Sean Lusk – ‘Lady Mary Wortley Montagu longs for adventure, freedom and love. Travelling to Constantinople, Mary finally discovers the autonomous life she dreams of.’
5. At the Breakfast Table by Defne Suman – ‘Buyukada, Turkey, 2017. In the glow of a late summer morning, family gather for the 100th birthday of the famous artist Shirin Saka.’
6. Elektra by Jennifer Saint – ‘The House of Atreus is cursed. This is the story of three women, their fates inextricably tied to this curse, and the fickle nature of men and gods.’
7. The Women of Troy by Pat Barker – ‘Troy has fallen and the victorious Greeks are eager to return home with the spoils of an endless war—including the women of Troy themselves.’
8. The Drowning Guard by Linda Lafferty – ‘Each morning in the hour before dawn, a silent boat launches on the Bosphorous, moving swiftly into the deepest part of the waters halfway between Europe and Asia, where a man will die…’
9. Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières – ‘When war is declared, the peaceful fabric of life in one small community in south-west Anatolia is destroyed.’
10. Stamboul Train by Graham Greene – ‘As the Orient Express hurtles across Europe on its three-day journey from Ostend to Constantinople, the lives of several of its passengers become bound together.’