Dance with Death (39 page)

‘Yes, well . . .’

‘Got to get back to İstanbul. Got to help Mehmet Süleyman with a very troubling business.’ İkmen sighed with pleasure and, after he had finished his cigarette, slept and dreamed of the great crime-riddled city on the Bosphorus. His home, his İstanbul.

The idea for this book came about, in part at least, as a result of a trip I made to Cappadocia in November 2003. A friend of mine, who lives in the area, wanted to do some travelling, and so I agreed to house- and cat-sit for her for a month. It was a very interesting experience, not least because it was Ramazan, the Muslim month of fasting, for most of the time I was there. In addition, both staying in and getting around the district with local people and expatriates was great fun and very illuminating. Life in a Turkish village is very different from life in İstanbul. The pace of everything is much slower and (especially when I went which was outside the tourist season) it is very quiet. Fasting is, as I discovered when I tried not to eat, drink or smoke during the hours of daylight, a very intense experience. It certainly focuses the mind on higher things and amid the eerily weird landscape of Cappadocia, it can be disconcerting. Some of my lone walks out into the valleys whilst fasting were decidedly odd!

During the course of my stay in Cappadocia I was treated with unfailing kindness and understanding. Neighbours willingly helped this practical incompetent to change propane gas bottles and assisted me in the conservation of energy by always telling me when I had more than one electric light blazing. ‘My’ village was not the fictional Muratpaşa. Having said that however, some of the rather more remote hamlets that I visited have more than a passing resemblance to my fictional creation. Isolated communities across the globe were ever thus.

Whilst almost all of the characters in this novel are fictional, some of the events are very real. The bombings of the Neve Şalom and Beth Israel synagogues on 15
^th
November 2003, as well as the attacks on the British Consulate and HSBC Bank (all in İstanbul) one week later, shocked the nation. It was quite by chance that some of my characters ‘lived’ opposite the Neve Şalom. But because of this and because of the magnitude of the explosion I was bound to deal at least with the Neve Şalom bombing on some level. Having said that, I have probably failed to do justice to the suffering that occurred on that terrible day, just as I cannot adequately describe the heroism of those who attended the injured and the dying – medics, police, fire service and military. Even in far away Cappadocia people unconnected with these events and with İstanbul were moved to tears by the images we all saw on our televisions over those two dreadful weekends.

Finally, if you are wondering who is
not
a fictional character in this book, it is the cat, Kismet. He is not, in reality, truly owned by anyone and quite terrified the cats I was looking after on occasion. But I do know him and whenever I have been in his presence, I have treated him with the utmost respect!

Barbara Nadel

Anıt Kabir
– Atatürk’s mausoleum in Ankara

Beledıye
– local council

Bey
– as in ‘Çetin Bey’, an Ottoman title denoting respect, still in use today following a man’s first name

Börek
– flaky pastry parcel

Cacık
– yoghurt with grated cucumber and mint

Çay bahçe
– tea garden

Djinn
– evil spirits

Hamam
– traditional Turkish steam bath

Hanım
– lady, woman. Like the male ‘bey’, it is a title denoting respect for an older, usually married woman. It follows the woman’s first name, as in ‘Nazlı Hanım’

İftar
– the meal eaten at sunset during Ramazan

İnşallah
– ‘God willing’ or ‘If God wills’

İskender Kebab
– Döner kebab on flat (pide) bread with yoghurt, butter and tomato sauce

Jandarma
– while the Turkish National Police are responsible for law and order in the urban districts, the Jandarma cover the rural areas. They are a paramilitary force under joint control of the military and the Interior Ministry

Kangal
– Anatolian sheepdog

Kapıcı
– Doorkeeper. Blocks of flats have kapıcılar, men who act as security, porters etc., for the apartment community

Kapalı Çarsı
– the Grand Bazaar

Kismet
– Fate

MİT
– Turkish Secret Service

Mescit
– small mosque

Meyhane
– Tavern or bar

Müezzin
– Cantor who sings the call to prayer

Pansiyon
– Pension, guest house

Patlıcan salatası
– Aubergine salad

Peris
– Fairies

Rakı
– Aniseed-flavoured alcoholic spirit

Ramazan
– Ramadan. The ninth month of the Islamic calendar when Muslims, if healthy, are expected to fast during the hours of daylight

Şalvar trousers
– Traditional baggy trousers worn by both men and women, mainly in rural areas

Şeytan
– Satan

Şiş Kebab
– Lamb or chicken cubes grilled on a skewer

TRT
– Türkiye Radyo ve Televizyon, Turkish broadcasting corporation

Tavla
– Backgammon

Yıldırım
– thunderbolt

The Turkish Alphabet is very similar to its English counterpart with the following exceptions:

^*
Midnight Express
- the story of an American convicted of drug offences and confined in a prison is Istanbul. It was highly sensationalist and covertly anti-Turkish.