The Trojan War Museum

and Other Stories

By: Ayse Papatya Bucak

Narrated by: Emily Sutton-Smith

A debut story collection of spectacular imaginative range and lyricism from a Pushcart Prize-winning author.

In Ayse Papatya Bucak's dreamlike narratives, dead girls recount the effects of an earthquake and a chess-playing automaton falls in love. A student stops eating and no one knows whether her act is personal or political. A Turkish wrestler, a hero in the East, is seen as a brute in the West. The anguish of an Armenian refugee is "performed" at an American fund-raiser. An Ottoman ambassador in Paris amasses a tantalizing collection of erotic art. And in the masterful title story, the Greek god Apollo confronts his personal history and bewails his Homeric reputation as he tries to memorialize, and make sense of, generations of war.

A joy and a provocation, Bucak's stories confront the nature of historical memory with humor and humanity. Surreal and poignant, they examine the tension between myth and history, cultural categories and personal identity, performance and authenticity.

©2019 Ayse Papatya Bucak (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Great stories limited by editing

Fantastic stories, but the transitions between the stories are too short. It wasn't always clear that one story had finished and another had begun. Once I took the approach to start each story individually, the issue was resolved. Still, Not the easiest to just listen to straight through.

Storytelling had me from the first page

While I am not normally a fiction reader, my wife and I were told that this was a must read, or listen to. Just a fair warning, it is impossible to stop in the middle of a story. I sat in my car, in my driveway, after getting home the other day listening to a story of a Turkish wrestler; A story which I never would imagined I would be interested in. Ayse Papatya Bucak’s storytelling is completely immersive and Emily Sutton-Smith's narration brings the characters to life. An absolute must read.