On a ferry crossing the Bosphoros, a philosophy student is putting the world to rights with his friend when he glimpses his soulmate, a well-educated young woman who is studying classical piano at the conservatoire. He woos her on a moonlit boat trip and they flout convention by moving in together, clinging to each other in the beauty and grime of 1930s Istanbul. But their young love is tested to its limits when he finds himself out of his depth in an increasingly febrile political climate. First published in 1940, this novel of survival and betrayal caused a sensation, intensifying the political persecution that eventually led to the author’s untimely and mysterious death.