A deeply thoughtful gripping and scrupulous book told in Sayarer's trademark style from the
saddle and the roadside CAROLINE EDEN By a winner of the Stanford Dolman Award for Travel
Writing The best travelogues should make you question your preconceptions of a place and force
you to engage with what the author is saying. Türkiye succeeds on both fronts Cycle Magazine We
need writers who will go all the way for a story and tell it with fire. Sayarer is a
marvellous example HORATIO CLARE On the eve of its centenary year and elections that will shape
the coming generations Julian Emre Sayarer sets out to cycle across Türkiye from the Aegean
coast to the Armenian border. Meeting Turkish farmers and workers Syrian refugees and Russians
avoiding conscription the journey brings to life a living breathing cultural tapestry of the
place where Asia Africa and Europe converge. The result is a love letter to a country and its
neighbours - one that offers a clear-eyed view of Türkiye and its place in a changing world.
Yet the route is also marked by tragedy as Sayarer cycles along a major fault line just months
before one of the most devastating earthquakes in the region's modern history. Always engaged
with the big historical and political questions that inform so much of his writing Sayarer
uses his bicycle and the roadside encounters it allows to bring everything back to the human
level. At the end of his journey we are left with a deeper understanding of the country as
well as the essential and universal nature of political power both in Türkiye and closer to
home. A persuasive corrective to western views of a place he loves Guardian
