I Am My Country and Other Stories

Spanning decades and landscapes, from the forests along the Black Sea to the streets of Istanbul, Kenan Orhan's playful stories conjure dreamlike worlds - of talking animals, flying houses, and omniscient prayer-callers - to examine humanity's unfaltering pursuit of hope in even the darkest circumstances. A determined florist trains a neighbourhood stray dog to blow up a corrupt president. A garbage collector finds banned instruments - and later, musicians - in the trash and takes them home to form a clandestine orchestra in her attic. A smuggler risks his life to bring a young woman claiming to be pregnant via immaculate conception across the border with Syria. A poor cage-maker tries to use his ability to talk to birds to woo his childhood love just before the 1955 Istanbul pogrom.