Hotel Bosphorus (28 page)

“I'll get a taxi,” I said.

“It's the first time anything like this has happened to me,” she said, raising her hand to her lip. “And they say Germans are cowards.”

“I went a bit too far.”

“If you weren't so pretty, I might not have been able to forgive you,” she said.

“Oh God,” I said, “Let's not go into that. I've reached the age when I have to convince myself that beauty is of no importance.”

“Oh, I'm not so sure about that,” said Yakut.

I should say that while writing this, my first book and publication, I encountered various problems, and I would like to thank certain friends for their constant encouragement, support and constructive criticism. They include Rüstem Batum, Arzu Çağlan, Otto Diederichs, Tuğrul Eryılmaz, Neslihan Kurt, Fatih Özgüven, Canan Parlar and Yıldırım Türker.

I would also like to thank Professor of Forensic Medicine Hamit Hancı for giving me his time and for providing answers to my questions about certain unsavoury matters.

BITTER LEMON PRESS
First published in the United Kingdom in 2011 by
Bitter Lemon Press, 37 Arundel Gardens, London W11 2LW

 

www.bitterlemonpress.com
First published in Turkish as
Kitapçi Dükkâni
by Everest Yayinlari, Istanbul, 2001

 

Bitter Lemon Press gratefully acknowledges the financial assistance of the Arts Council of England and of the TEDA Project of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey

© Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich, 2003
English translation © Ruth Whitehouse, 2011

 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission of the publisher

 

The moral rights of the author and the translator have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988

 

All the characters and events described in this novel are imaginary and any similarity with real people or events is purely coincidental.

 

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

eISBN : 978-1-904-73871-8

Typeset by Alma Books Limited

Printed and bound by Cox & Wyman Ltd, Reading, Berkshire