Porcelain Moon and Pomegranates

"In this blend of memoir and travel literature, author Ustun Bilgen-Reinart explores the people, politics, and passions of her native country, whisking the reader on a journey through time, memory, and space. She searches deep into the roots of her own ancestry and uncovers a family secret, breaks taboos in a nation that still takes tradition very seriously, and navigates through dangerous territory that sees her investigating brothels in Ankara, probing honour murders in Sanhurfa, encountering Kurds in the remote southeast, and witnessing the rape of the earth by a gold mining company near Bergama." "Along the way the reader treks with the author along the banks of the fabled Tigris and Euphrates rivers, examines the role of the female from the ancient Mother Goddess to modern Muslim women eking out livings in shantytowns, and observes whirling dervishes in the heartland. Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Saint Paul, Genghis Khan, Tamburlaine, they all came to Anatolia. Today Turkey is a nation in transition, a place where you could say the heart of the world beats."--Jacket.