A GALLIPOLI SOLDIER'S SECRET
Buket Uzuner
Antares Publishing
A best-selling Turkish novel based on Gallipoli - A Gallipoli Soldier's Secret by Buket Uzuner - has been reissued in English to coincide with the centenary of the Gallipoli landings.
The book was first published in English in 2002 as The Long White Cloud - Gallipoli. It involves a New Zealand psychologist and a Turkish lawyer and their families, and is a detective story as well as a love story.
Like such stories generally, it relies a lot on coincidence, but its development says a lot about both societies and cultures, and what they have in common.
It may also help explain why Kiwis and Turks have often got on well since Gallipoli. It outlines a gentle, hopeful conclusion to it all.
- Oliver Riddell is a retired journalist in Wellington.
