• ISBN13: 9788170462972
• Binding: Paperback
• Subject: Sociology and Anthropology
• Publisher: Seagull Books
• Publisher Imprint: Seagull
• Publication Date: February 16, 2000
• Pages: 284
• Original Price: INR 295.0
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 500 grams

Each year, when the weather in Istanbul becomes unbearable, the family of Iskender Pasha, a retired Ottoman notable, retires to its summer palace overlooking the Sea of Marmara. It is 1899 and the last great empire is in serious trouble. A former tutor poses a question which the family has been refusing to confront for almost a century: Your Ottoman Empire is like a drunken prostitute, neither knowing nor caring who will take her next. Do I exaggerate, Memed? The history of Iskender Pasha s family mirrors the growing degeneration of the Empire they have served for the last five hundred years. This passionate story of masters and servants, school-teachers and painters, is marked by jealousies, vendettas and the decay of the Empire, a new generation which is deeply hostile to the half-truths and myths of the golden days.