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Nuri's DonkeyUntold Stories & Unwritten Rules of a Village in TurkeyWhen Allah wants a pauper to be happy First he makes him lose his donkey Then he lets him find it A lost donkey and a collection of stories don't appear to have much in common. But the joy of finding each of them lies in the renewed appreciation for something vital that perhaps was taken for granted. For his livelihood's sake, a pauper mustn't lose his donkey; for humanity's sake, we mustn't lose our desire to listen to - and recognize ourselves in - the voices of others. Nuri's Donkey takes readers to a remote village in Turkey, where they will discover funny, bittersweet, and stranger-than-fiction tales about people who are not so different after all. In 1982 I went to this village with my then-husband to meet my in-laws. None of the villagers had ever seen an American or heard a foreigner speaking Turkish, so I was quite a novelty. Each day curious onlookers would gather at the house to stare and ask me questions. My sisters-in-law, feeling obliged to protect me, would try to shoo them all away. Four-year-old Yucel declared again and again, "your eyes are green, your hair is white!" and asked if he could keep me in exchange for a toy truck. "Nuri's Donkey is a delightful look at life in a Turkish village, from one of the few Americans who has actually lived it. Her stories are witty, poignant, evocative and always insightful. Together they enrich our understanding of how good people (and some bad ones) make their way through life in an era of rapid social change." - Stephen Kinzer, author of Crescent & Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds Consulting & Photography by Fikri Kuchuk English Renderings by Fikri Kuchuk & Emily Bunker Illustrations by Tim Joyce Excerpts Photographs Nuri's Cyprus Donkeys Purchase online at: Amazon | IndieBound | Trafford Publishing |