The Endless Country | Sami Kent

The Endless Country takes a journey through Turkey’s past – the nation the author’s father left decades ago and he returns to as a young man.It is not about Erdogan or Ataturk, the two towering Presidents who have book-ended that history, and at times have appeared impossible to escape.
Instead Sami Kent’s book goes deep beyond them, revealing a history as rich, layered and absurd as his family’s favourite dessert, kunefe: a shredded wheat pastry with a core of melted cheese, a topping of pistachios, and a drowning of syrup.From tiny weightlifters to the world’s biggest prison, from a failed socialist commune to a wildly successful orchid ice cream, the book is a tribute to the sheer bewildering diversity of Turkey’s past: its people, their ideas and their struggles.