The author is an old Istanbul hand who has seen it change over the years from a provincial backwater to today's vibrant metropolis. With Tillinghast as a guide through Istanbul's cafés, mosques and palaces, and along its streets and waterways, readers will feel at home both in the Constantinople of bygone days and on the streets of the modern town.

Richard Tillinghast is a travel writer, poet and translator. In 2008 he published Finding Ireland: A Poet's Explorations of Irish Literature and Culture, winner of ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Award for Travel Essays. He was awarded the Amy Lowell Travelling Fellowship from Harvard and the Cleanth Brooks Prize for creative non-fiction. He is a 2010-2011 Guggenheim Fellow.