Anatolian Days and Nights: A Love Affair with Turkey, Land of Dervishes, Goddesses, and Saints

by Joy Stocke, Angie Brenner

Overview

When Joy Stocke and Angie Brenner meet on the balcony of a guesthouse in a small resort town on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, they think they have only a mutual friend and a summer dream in common. Soon, they discover a shared love of travel, history, culture, cuisine, and literature; and they begin a ten-year odyssey through Turkey.

Inspired by the poetry of thirteenth-century mystic Jelaluddin Rumi, Brenner and Stocke journey to central Turkey for the Whirling Dervishes Festival. A visit to a Turkish bath becomes a lesson in sensuality and patience. Their interest in the cults of the mother goddess takes them to Ephesus, the Black Sea, and east into Mesopotamia. Through intuition, experience, and a bit of serendipity, Brenner and Stocke find excitement, friendship, and love, and learn how and why Turkey—a country that holds the keys to Western Civilization—continues to grow in world importance.

Travel writing with literary value, Anatolian Days and Nights will appeal to armchair travelers as well as those about to hit the road.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780983918806
Publisher:	Wild River Books
Publication date:	03/01/2012
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Angie Brenner began her love affair with Turkey when she embarked on a quest to see Whirling Dervishes in Konya, where Sufi mystic Jelaluddin Rumi taught. An avid traveler and illustrator, Brenner would spend the next twenty-five years searching the remote corners of Turkey for historical and cultural links between Turkey’s past and present. A former travel-bookstore owner and freelance writer, Brenner is the West Coast Editor for the online magazine Wild River Review. She lives in the rural mountain community of Julian, California.

Joy E. Stocke has been traveling to and writing about Turkey and the eastern Aegean since 1982. Her quest to discover the roots of Western religion has brought her to all of Turkey’s borders. She is the author of a novel, Ugly Cookies, and a collection of bilingual poems (English/Greek), The Cave of the Bear, based on her travels in Crete. Founder and editor-in-chief of the online magazine Wild River Review, Stocke is a Lindisfarne Association fellow and serves on the board of the Princeton Middle East Society. She lives in Stockton, New Jersey.

Table of Contents

Author's Note ix

Turkish Pronunciation xi

Prologue 1

Introduction 3

One Lycian Days 13

Two Lycian Nights 33

Three Before and After 43

Four The Steamy Side of Istanbul 49

Five Blinis In Beyoglu 59

Six Rumi and Coke 79

Seven Almost a House In Ortahisar 97

Eight Our Grand Basic Black Sea Adventure 115

Nine The Queen of Anatolia 133

Ten The Eagle of Ararat 147

Eleven Abraham and the Mermaid 163

Twelve The Education of Mustafa 189

Thirteen The Nymph Who Ran Away 209

Fourteen Return to the Lycian Sea 221

Epilogue 239

Acknowledgments 241

Bibliography 243

About the Authors 247

What People are Saying About This

Harriet Mayor Fulbright

In their touching, often humorous memoir, Anatolian Days & Nights: A Love Affair with Turkey, Joy Stocke and Angie Brenner write vividly about their journeys through a one of the world's most vibrant countries. The landscape and people slip beneath your skin until you are no longer sure whether you've become a part of Turkey or whether Turkey has become a part of you. As a frequent visitor to Turkey, I applaud Stocke and Brenner for skillfully weaving a tale that leaves me yearning to return. (Harriet Mayor Fulbright, Widow of Senator J. William Fulbright, Founder of the Fulbright Scholarship Program and President of Harriet Fulbright College)

Alan Drew

Anatolian Days and Nights is an intimate, clear-eyed view of a fascinating country. Joy Stocke and Angie Brenner have captured the contradictions of modern day Turkey, while exposing the complex web of history at the heart of our human story. This book will make you want to grab your bags and hop the next flight to Istanbul. (Alan Drew, author of Gardens of Water)

Rita Golden Gelman

Filled with smiles, laughter, dancing, whirling; exotic foods I want to taste and exquisite crafts I want to buy. Joy and Angie walk us down ancient paths where ghosts of the past still dwell; they lead us into cooking kitchens where eggplant and lamb fill today with magic blends of herbs and spices. The authors' love of the culture, then and now...its joy, its challenges, its exuberance... is contagious. After reading this book, I have moved Turkey to the top of my list. (Rita Golden Gelman, author, Tales of a Female Nomad, Living at Large in the World.)

Elif Shafak

Compassionate, nuanced, tender and informative, this book will change your perspective on contemporary Turkey. (Elif Shafak, author of The Bastard of Istanbul and Black Milk.)

Interviews

Stockton, NJ

Editorial Reviews

"Filled with smiles, laughter, dancing, whirling; exotic foods I want to taste and exquisite crafts I want to buy. Joy and Angie walk us down ancient paths where ghosts of the past still dwell; they lead us into cooking kitchens where eggplant and lamb fill today with magic blends of herbs and spices. The authors’ love of the culture, then and now…its joy, its challenges, its exuberance… is contagious.  After reading this book, I have moved Turkey to the top of my list."
- Rita Golden Gelman, author, Tales of a Female Nomad, Living at Large in the World.

Rita Golden Gelman

Anatolian Days and Nights is an intimate, clear-eyed view of a fascinating country.  Joy Stocke and Angie Brenner have captured the contradictions of modern day Turkey, while exposing the complex web of history at the heart of our human story.  This book will make you want to grab your bags and hop the next flight to Istanbul.”         
—  Alan Drew, author of Gardens of Water

Alan Drew

In their touching, often humorous memoir, Anatolian Days & Nights: A Love Affair with Turkey, Joy Stocke and Angie Brenner write vividly about their journeys through a one of the world’s most vibrant countries. The landscape and people slip beneath your skin until you are no longer sure whether you’ve become a part of Turkey or whether Turkey has become a part of you. As a frequent visitor to Turkey, I applaud Stocke and Brenner for skillfully weaving a tale that leaves me yearning to return.”
—  Harriet Mayor Fulbright, Widow of Senator J. William Fulbright, Founder of the Fulbright Scholarship Program and President of Harriet Fulbright College

Harriet Mayor Fulbright

"There is a lot to be said for two women, one married with children, the other single, who choose to travel through a country where such a thing provokes shock, distrust, and assumptions about the flexibility of their moral character. The two handle awkward or frightening situations with grace and intelligence." -Philadelphia Inquirer

Philadelphia Inquirer

Compassionate, nuanced, tender and informative, this book will change your perspective on contemporary Turkey.” - Elif Shafak, author of The Bastard of Istanbul and Black Milk.

Elif Shafak