Scholar Jenny White, an anthropology professor at Boston University, brings Turkey's past to life in a new book she characterizes as a "Muslim version of 'The Da Vinci Code.' "
White's second Kamil Pasha mystery, "The Abyssinian Proof" (Norton), is set in Istanbul's underworld during the Ottoman Empire's decline. Pasha, a young magistrate, sets out to uncover the reason behind the theft of religious objects from local churches, mosques, and synagogues. As Pasha makes his case, White explores the politics of Turkey in the late 1800s. "It's a way of making history real," she says.
White, who is currently in Turkey on a Fulbright grant, said the Turkish translation of her first mystery, "The Sultan's Seal," was well received. A review in a major Turkish newspaper was headlined "The woman who looks in our mirror."
Titles, titles, everywhere
A single square mile of New York City's Greenwich Village is home to more than 20 bookstores, among them the Strand, Books of Wonder (for children), Partners & Crime, and Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks. On April 26, you can shop till you drop and leave the driving to Baker Books in Dartmouth, which is sponsoring a bus trip to the area. The $68 ticket includes round-trip bus fare, dinner, a map and guide to the bookstores, and a literary walking tour. Details at bakerbooks.net.
Honors and more
A literary prize that lands a writer a book contract is a prize indeed. Up in Maine, Penelope Schwartz Robinson has been selected by Katha Pollitt as the winner of the first Stonecoast Book Prize. Robinson's collection of essays, "Slippery Men," will be published this fall by New Rivers Press, a sponsor of the Stonecoast Prize along with the University of Southern Maine.
Next year Laura van den Berg, a graduate student at Emerson College and winner of the $5,000 Dzanc Prize, will have her story collection, "What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us," published by prize sponsor Dzanc Books.
Mosaic of lives
Keitha B. Hassell of Roxbury remembers horse-drawn wagons, the neighborhood blacksmith, gas streetlamps, and her family's party-line telephone. "I was born before plastic!" writes Hassell, a retired teacher.
Her essay is among 40 collected in a new book, "Born Before Plastic: Stories From Boston's Most Enduring Neighborhoods," jointly published by the city of Boston and Grub Street. Teachers in Grub Street's Memoir Project inspired residents - sometimes with a prompt as simple as "My mother never told me . . ." - to write their stories.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Grub Street will host a reception for the book at 6:30 p.m. on March 11 at Borders, 511 Boylston St., Boston.
Coming out
"The Forger: An Extraordinary Story of Survival in Wartime Berlin," by Cioma Schönhaus (Da Capo)
"Remember Me?," by Sophie Kinsella (Dial)
"Honor Thyself," by Danielle Steel (Delacorte)
Pick of the week
Alie Hess of Brookline Booksmith recommends "Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name," by Vendela Vida (Harper, paperback): "The writing is as sparse as the locale - Lapland - but you are drawn in immediately. A unique and intense read about a woman whose mother deserted her. When her father dies, she finds out he is not her biological father. Her journey of discovery is harrowing but affirming."
Jan Gardner can be reached at JanLGardner@yahoo.com.
