• Midnight at the Pera Palace

  • The Birth of Modern Istanbul
  • By: Charles King
  • Narrated by: Grover Gardner
  • Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (187 ratings)

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Midnight at the Pera Palace  By  cover art

Midnight at the Pera Palace

By: Charles King
Narrated by: Grover Gardner
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Publisher's summary

At midnight, December 31, 1925, citizens of the newly proclaimed Turkish Republic celebrated the New Year. For the first time ever, they had agreed to use a nationally unified calendar and clock.

Yet in Istanbul - an ancient crossroads and Turkey's largest city - people were looking toward an uncertain future. Never purely Turkish, Istanbul was home to generations of Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, as well as Muslims. It welcomed White Russian nobles ousted by the Russian Revolution, Bolshevik assassins on the trail of the exiled Leon Trotsky, German professors, British diplomats, and American entrepreneurs - a multicultural panoply of performers and poets, do-gooders and ne'er-do-wells. During the Second World War, thousands of Jews fleeing occupied Europe found passage through Istanbul, some with the help of the future Pope John XXIII. At the Pera Palace, Istanbul's most luxurious hotel, so many spies mingled in the lobby that the manager posted a sign asking them to relinquish their seats to paying guests.

With beguiling prose and rich character portraits, Charles King brings to life a remarkable era when a storied city stumbled into the modern world and reshaped the meaning of cosmopolitanism.

©2014 Charles King (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about Midnight at the Pera Palace

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

INTERESTING SUBJECT - CONFUSED WRITING

There IS a kernel of an interesting subject here but the writing jumps around, making the whole book confusing. Grover Gardner is a great asset but not good enough to save this account. Here, again, Audible would benefit listeners by providing us with PDF downloads of accompanying photographs if available in the print version. With a rare account of a magnificent city like Instanbul, I'm sure the author gave the reader a visual glimpse of this colorful locale, along with vintage prints of Constantinople and its transition into Instanbul.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

haphazardly told history

this is a perfect example of how to take fascinating history and make it as dull and hard to follow as possible. The narration was abominable. Every Turkish word was mispronounced in the most painful way. I had to use your willpower to finish this book.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

good book dBm 9 smothers sign up for

I am in the hospital in Poland flat on my back I did not speak Polish I do not understand police TV this is been a wonderful movie for a person in my condition are not moving book and I can recommend it for anyone in a similar circumstance

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Captivating story of transition to modernity

This is not a history of a hotel, but King very cleverly uses the hotel as a lens through which to study the changes in Istanbul over the first half of the 20th century.

King presents a very thorough analysis, covering the social, political, economic, ethnic, religious and even architectural changes over the period, as well as what has survived all the changes. He neatly places these changes and continuities within the wider contexts of the old Ottoman Empire, Turkey, Europe and Asia. The book is wonderfully researched and written in an easily accessible and convincing narrative.

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    1 out of 5 stars
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The front cover

There was very little entertainment, and I found it challenging to make concrete connections to historical output.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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World gone by

If you liked the Grand Budapest hotel, then this will give you the same nostalgic look at a world that is gone.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent

Excellent history of Turkey and Istanbul, with lots of information and stories. A very engaging and enjoyable listening experience.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

The birth of modern-day Istanbul

This book centers on a great hotel (which still exists to this day) in Istanbul (Constantinople of old). Although it focuses on this hotel throughout the years, it goes off on a number of tangents. The most notable is near the end as it follows the plight of jews during WWII, not sure how that ties in with the hotel but it does center the focus on Istanbul. The narrator is wonderful and this was an enjoyable read about a city I love.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

This was a surprisingly interesting book. Anyone interested in history will like this book. No agenda, just history. narrator is great.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Probably Better in Hard Copy

I really wish that the narrator had some command of the Turkish language. The many mispronunciations really detracted from the listening experience.

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