The Quartet by Tariq Ali, that examines the long standing encounter between Western Christianity and the Islamic World, tears down stereotyped images and sheds light on contemporary events. The literary feast it offers is indescribable. And there is no doubt that these books are even more meaningful for the TAV Family, which is involved in major projects in the region.

The series examines the long standing encounter between Western Christianity and the Islamic World. The first book of the series, Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree (Everest Publications in Turkey) tells of the land in Andalusia, adorned with pomegranates, where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together, of the massacre which began when Queen Isabella’s army captured Muslim Granada on 2 January 1492 and of the destruction of an immense culture, together with two million manuscripts. The second book, The Book of Saladin, sheds light on Saladin, the Ayyubid Sultan of Damascus and Cairo who rescued Jerusalem from the Crusaders, and his period. The Stone Woman describes the foggy days of the Ottomans in the 1890s, through the family of a pasha in Istanbul. A Sultan in Palermo, which Tariq Ali writes in order to tell of the purging of Muslims from Sicily, centres on the life of Mohammed Al-Idrisi, considered one of the most important cartographers and geographers of the Middle Ages.

Through events and characters that are unbelievably close to us, these stories tell of the age in which we live, in a way that will not sound unfamiliar to those who observe what is going on today in the Middle East. They replace stereotyped images in people’s minds with their alternative. If you read the quartet this summer, there is no doubt that you will then start looking forward to the fifth book.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

BOOK OF MISINFORMATION Akdoğan Özkan / İnkilap Publications Turkey, forever a country of misinformation, has consolidated this culture through cut and paste information that has filled our brains via Google. In the Book of Misinformation, Akdoğan Özkan compiles 101 rare examples and deciphers many things we are misinformed about regarding the history, geography, language and culture of Turkey.

BOUNDARIES Henry Cloud, J. Townsend / Koridor Publications Boundaries tell you who you are and who you are not. Within these boundaries there is your personal space and within this space your feelings, your ambitions and your needs; while outside this space there are the things you do not want. Where do you want to stand?

OUTLIERS / Why are some people successful? Malcolm Gladwell / MediaCat Books Gladwell claims that the lives of people who achieve extraordinary success follow an out-of-the-ordinary logic. He simplifies this logic and offers an exciting plan on how people can take advantage of their own potential at the highest possible level.

ISTANBUL RESTAURANTS FOR TRADESPEOPLE Sevim Gökyıldız / Istanbul Chamber of Commerce Publications In this book Sevim Gökyıldız brings together 40 restaurants for trades people that have left a mark on the life of Istanbul; from Yanyalı Fehmi in Kadıköy to the Kanaat Restaurant, a symbol of Üsküdar.

PSYCHOLOGICAL STORIES Ayşen İnci / Güncel Publications The book contains twelve stories, some funny, some tragic, all narrated by cats. When you read this book you will have a chance to see the world with the sensitivity and beauty of being a cat.

STORIES FROM IZMIR Prepared by: Hülya Soykeşerci, Ferda İzbudak Akıncı/Şenocak Publications Twenty authors, among whom Muzaffer İzgü, İnci Aral, Feyza Hepçilingirler, Canan Tan, Hasan Özkılıç, Osman Şahin and Sadık Yemni, besiege the past and present of each and every district of Izmir and conquer it.