A letter from the "Last Letter from Istanbul"

“Nur once heard it said that a woman’s sphere is actually less constrained than a mans. Because whilst he may travel outside in the physical world, her internal world is limitless, set only by the boundries of her imagination.”

The above quote was taken from the part in the book where the author described the fate that woman had to face at that time. They werent given as much freedom as the males of their time, and so they imrpovised and used their imagination to explore their world.

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After reading the synopsis of the book, I had two thoughts going through my mind. The first being that I was quite excited to be learning more about a time, a war, that a favorite city of mine had experienced. This period was not apart of my knowledge, and so to read of it would be a new opening. The second thought was that I was afraid the author would use the lives of Nur and George to romantisize the after effects of war. Neverthless, I began the book and kept these views at the back of my mind.

The book presents the differet perspectives of the characters, and at first, the multiple points of views annoyed me. However, as I continued to read on, I realized that this was a key elemnt to present the story. It gave the effect of allowing each of the characters to be a main character in this story, and so allowed me to further develop a personal ‘relation’ with each of them. It also allowed me to understand why they did what they did, and made it easier for me to relate to each one of the characters. It is one of the first books that I am reading that has this elemnt, and I admit that it truly is a beautiful way to tell a story, instead of it being from one perspective only.

As mentioned, a thought that the author was romantisizing the entire idea of war, I soon learned that this wasn’t the case. According to the book, many relations, those romantic and friendly, had been built between the occupants and the residents. This brought on the idea that it was more of a side effect of the war, that it was bound to occur and the author simply focused on one of the story’s. The fact that the author used Nur’s story, lightened the topic of a war a bit, and allowed to the book to be read without as many heartbreaks.

As mentioned, a thought that the author was romanticizing the entire idea of war, I soon learned that this wasn’t the case. According to the book, many relations, those romantic and friendly, had been built between the occupants and the residents. This brought on the idea that it was more of a side effect of the war, that it was bound to occur and the author simply focused on one of the stories. The fact that the author used Nur’s story, lightened the topic of a war a bit, and allowed the book to be read without as many heartbreaks. that I am reading that has this element, and I admit that it truly is a beautiful way to tell a story, instead of it being from one perspective only.