Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities

By: Bettany Hughes

Narrated by: Bettany Hughes

Istanbul has long been a place where stories and histories collide, where perception is as potent as fact. From the Koran to Shakespeare, this city with three names - Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul - resonates as an idea and a place, real and imagined. Standing as the gateway between East and West, North and South, it has been the capital city of the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Empires. For much of its history it was the very center of the world, known simply as "The City," but, as Bettany Hughes reveals, Istanbul is not just a city, but a global story.

In this epic new biography, Hughes takes us on a dazzling historical journey from the Neolithic to the present, through the many incarnations of one of the world's greatest cities - exploring the ways that Istanbul's influence has spun out to shape the wider world. Hughes investigates what it takes to make a city and tells the story not just of emperors, viziers, caliphs, and sultans, but of the poor and the voiceless, of the women and men whose aspirations and dreams have continuously reinvented Istanbul. Written with energy and animation, award-winning historian Bettany Hughes deftly guides listeners through Istanbul's rich layers of history.

Based on meticulous research and new archaeological evidence, this captivating portrait of the momentous life of Istanbul is visceral, immediate, and authoritative - narrative history at its finest.

©2017 Bettany Hughes (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"A vibrant, sprawling portrait of a city as enigmatic as it is historically important...Hughes' entertaining narrative style with its visual details, dramatic archaeological discoveries, and cliffhanger chapter endings allows her erudition and exuberance to shine." (Booklist)

"Impressive. In Istanbul, Hughes plays intriguing, sophisticated games with time and space.... By making unlikely connections between well-described locations and events separated by eons, she gives voice to those witchy, diachronic feelings in a spectacular fashion." (The Economist)

"Hughes is not an argumentative historian. She avoids the debates of academe. She is a wistful and impassioned cosmopolitan who has produced a challenging story." (Financial Times)

One of the best works of non-fiction I've read

This was fun engaging and informative without being dull or dead. I was surprised because even though it's not dramatized, I was emotionally invested in the story. Fantastic work and the authors knowledge of the subject and passion are wonderfully infectious

Fascinating! You'll definitely want to visit

Never heard an audiobook that spans such a huge timespan on one city. The author sells

Bettany Hughes excellence

I chose this because i am a big fan of her documentaries and felt confident this book would be equally enjoyable, especially since she is the narrator. I was not disappointed. I learned a lot about a part of the world i knew little of.

If you love history. This is a must read.

Bettany Hughes never dissapoints this a great read. Istanbul now is now on my bucket list of places to visit.

Great Book - Huge Scope Suceedes

Hughes manages to include detail and write a coherent narrative. This book is an accomplishment.

Inaccuracies

Great performance and story, but with some rather annoying inaccuracies that make me question how accurate the rest of the content is. For example, she describes Kyivan Rus as being part of modern Russia. Well, that's what Putin thinks too, but the fact is Kyiv is the capital of modern Ukraine. The only time she mentions Ukraine in the book, she calls it "The Ukraine," typical of people who know nothing of that part of the world and the tensions there.

She also gives in to the modern woke alternative facts and mocks views that Europeans came out of Caucasus. There is vast modern research literature on that subject, providing ample evidence that this inconvenient truth is in fact accurate. DNA research suggests that European ancestors came out of Africa and first settled in Caucasus, as suggested by the vast diversity in DNA mutations in that region (DNA tends to mutate, so the more mutations, the longer it was there).

So, based on my read of the book and my knowledge of these two topics, Hughes is a good storyteller, but like all good storytellers tends to bend facts to her preferences.

loooong book but worth it

This is the longest audiobook that I’ve listened to. Took me more than a year on and off, almost abandoned it several times. It takes patience but pays off. The history of Istanbul is so rich and complicated that it deserves the time to unfold. The author has a way of telling stories and a fresh viewpoint. I will be listening to her other books.

Fascinating story

I like that it covered the whole history of the city. Am learning a great deal. However, I find the narration difficult - her voice is at a pitch that is hard for me hear clearly, and frankly somewhat monotonous. I may have to switch to reading the book and start again.

If you love Istanbul…

This is a substantial book and needs some commitment and reading endurance to get through. Bettany Hughes is fantastic-of course- and her reading of the book makes it all the more fun. You can catch her excitement with the city and it’s history. Highly recommended

Great writing, read well

A great social, economic, and political, and military history of multicultural Istanbul through the ages. Hughes’s narration of her own writing captures the emotion and intellect of the text—while making easy work of Istanbul’s tricky multilingualism.