A novel in which East and West and the Turkish and the German present are no longer separate. Its firework display of colourful scenes and episodes sharpens our perception of a city in the throes of re-self-definition, and of recent German history from the perspective of the Kazan family, which, like the Germans, lived with the Wall for decades. An urbane, cosmopolitan book that opens doors and windows and exposes and destroys clichés. The story of the nineteen-year-old Hasan who commutes with his family between the Bosporus and the Spree for many years, and who decides to leave Istanbul for Berlin on the day the Berlin Wall falls. A breath-taking tragi-comical novel full of characters and episodes from East and West. It is about growing up, friendship, the search for a great love, loss and identity. A cosmopolitan book that exposes and destroys clichés.

In ›Selam Berlin‹, Hasan Kazan witnessed the fall of the wall. In ›Cafe Cyprus‹ he tries to gain a foothold in London and is fascinated by the mixture of different nationalities characterising the city. Khan and Betty, Kazim and Sukjeet, Ali and Ayse are the friends with whom Hasan – a present-day nomad – socialises in the London of the early nineties. In Green Lanes, North London, he works in ›Ali's Supermarket‹. In ›Cafe Cyprus‹, he waits on old Cypriots who still engage in embittered discussions on the solution of the Cyprus conflict. He also sells Kebabs with Kazim and clothes with Khan and Betty at Portobello Market, falls in love with Hannah, takes his mom, on a visit from Istanbul, and cousin Leyla to the city's tourist highlights, philosophises about Englishness, and compares his experiences with Berlin and Istanbul, the cities in which he grew up. No doubt – everything is one notch hotter and tougher in London.