Midnight at the Pera Palace

When the Ottoman Empire collapsed, so many spies mingled in the lobby of Istanbuls Pera Palace Hotel that the manager put up a sign asking them to relinquish seats to paying guests. As the multi-ethnic empire became a Turkish republic, Russian migrs sold family heirlooms, an African American impresario founded a jazz club and Miss Turkey became the first Muslim beauty queen. Turkeys president Kemal Atatrk, Muslim feminist Halide Edip, the exiled Leon Trotsky and the future Pope John XXIII fought for new visions of human freedom. During the Second World War, German intellectuals ran from the Nazis while Jewish activists spirited refugees out of occupied Europe. This pioneering portrait of urban reinvention re-creates an era when an ancient city became a global crossroadsa moment when Europes closest Muslim metropolis became its vital port of refuge.