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.