Travel to Turkey without a plane: 8 novels capturing Istanbul life, coastal hikes, quirky neighborhoods, and rich cultures.
If you want to be whisked off to Turkey without leaving your reading nook, here are 8 books that do it beautifully, each one with its own flavor of place, history, people, and culture. There’s something for everyone, no matter what part of Turkey you’re curious about (Istanbul? The East? Rural Anatolia? Old Ottoman traces? Modern-day politics?).
Snow by Orhan Pamuk
Pamuk is almost synonymous with Istanbul, but Snow takes you further, out to Kars, a remote, cold city in eastern Turkey. It blends politics, religion, personal crisis, isolation, and the harsh weather so well that you’ll feel the snowdrifts and the tension.
If you like your travel books with philosophical underpinnings, border towns, and a bit of political mystery, this is a great one.
The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak
Shafak’s novel is set in Istanbul (and partly in the US) and centres a lot on family, secrets, memory, identity, especially Armenian history and how that past echoes into the present.
It gives a vivid portrait of modern Istanbul life, its cosmopolitan hustling, its layers of tradition and change, and tensions between different cultural identities, all seen through compelling personal relationships. If you’re the king of travelers who really likes to see the real destination, then The Bastard of Istanbul is the book for you.
Memed, My Hawk by Yaşar Kemal
Rustic, lyrical, powerful. This is something like an Anatolian “Robin Hood” story: oppressed peasants, cruel landlords (also known as aghas), rugged landscapes, and at the core of it all, rebellion.
If you want Turkey’s rural soul, its landscapes, its folklore, and the resilience of people in hard circumstances, this one’s a gem. It’s less about Istanbul urbanity, more about Anatolia’s hills, fields, frustrations, and beauties.
Human Landscapes from My Country by Nazım Hikmet
Poetic, experimental, in verse, but also a panorama of 20th-century Turkey. Hikmet shifts scenes across geography (from prison to cities to countryside), across social classes, and through political upheavals.
This gives a very broad sense of Turkey, not just one place or one time, but many lives and many landscapes, many voices. For immersiveness and emotional breadth, this one is hard to beat. Even if you were really in the country, you’d be hard-pressed to see this much of it in one trip.
The Flea Palace by Elif Shafak
This is a vibrant, modern portrait of Istanbul life through the lens of a crumbling apartment building, once luxurious but now a little shabby and full of character. Known as Bonbon Palace, the building houses a colorful cast of residents: students, dreamers, misfits, and families, each with their own quirks, secrets, and ambitions.
The novel’s brilliance lies in how these stories intertwine, with gossip, misunderstandings, and small acts of kindness flowing through the hallways, stairwells, and thin walls. Shafak captures the rhythm of urban life with a humor and playfulness that make it an easy read.
Ayşe’s Trail by Atulya K. Bingham
This novel takes you along Turkey’s famous Lycian Way, a long-distance coastal hiking trail that winds past turquoise bays, mountain villages, and ancient ruins. It follows Ayşe, a woman walking the route while piecing her life back together. Along the way, you get descriptions of Mediterranean landscapes, encounters with locals, and the blend of history and modern rural life that makes Turkey’s south coast so magnetic.
It’s light, uplifting, and full of holiday atmosphere. It is the perfect read if you want a book that feels like sunshine on your shoulders and sea breeze in your hair.
My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk
This award-winning novel drops you straight into 16th-century Istanbul, at the height of the Ottoman Empire, where art, religion, love, and murder collide. It’s part mystery, part historical epic, and part philosophical discussion on the meaning of art. Each chapter is narrated by a different voice. Even objects and colors get a say, creating a kaleidoscopic feel that mirrors the city’s own richness.
If you want to feel the texture of Ottoman Istanbul, its workshops, its palaces, its bustling streets, then pick this one up. It is a vivid, immersive ride.
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak
This Booker Prize–shortlisted novel begins with the final moments in the mind of Tequila Leila, a sex worker in Istanbul whose life story unravels in flashes. Through her memories and the friendships she forged, you see the city’s margins, its tea houses, its backstreets, its communities beyond the tourist gloss. Everything is laid bare, the nitty-gritty, the secrecy, the true Turkey.
Join our community of 1.5M readers
Like this story? You'll love our free weekly magazine.
Millie Ramm
Millie has been writing since she was a child, and has spent more time with her nose in books than anywhere else. She has been ghostwriting novels and editing for the past few years, and when not working she is curled up with her cats, looking for her next read.
