"My Secret Istanbul
Turkey's best-known novelist recalls a childhood in the city that has become his soul, rich in mystery.
By Orhan Pamuk
Newsweek International
Aug. 29, 2005 issue - I was born in Istanbul. Except for the three years I spent in New York City, I've lived nowhere else. At the age of 53, I am living again in the Pamuk Apartments, which my grandparents built for our large extended family when I was an infant. On summer evenings, when I stand at my window and peer through the swaying branches of the old plane trees lining Tesvikiye Avenue, I can just see the lights of Aladdin's, the shop where my father bought his cigarettes and newspapers, and where I would go for chocolate, bubble gum, water pistols, plastic watches and the latest issue of Tom Mix comics."
More:My Secret Istanbul - Newsweek: International Editions - MSNBC.com