The Dark Moment

Feride and Nilufer, accustomed to the elegance and protection of an old, aristocratic society, were suddenly forced by their love for the men they had married to become pioneers for the freedom of their countrywomen! The revolution started by the sensational general Mustafa Kemal Ataturk had swept their husbands up in the fight for a new and modern Turkey, while Feride and Nilufer were left behind. And so the two girls, escaping in coarse disguises from a palace overlooking the Bosporus, made their hazardous way to the Ankara to join their husbands. Through rain and mud and past glittering snowy peaks, the inexperienced creatures plunged into hardships they had never dreamed of - learning to cook, living with the roar of Greek guns, and fearing the horrors of military disaster. The magnetic Ataturk, having led his forces victoriously against the Greeks, proceeded to cajole and bully his people into doffing the veil and fez, wearing hats, using a new alphabet. He persuaded them - with the help of courageous women like Feride - to become almost overnight a 20th-century nation. With this exciting theme and background, Ann Bridge has written a one-sitting kind of book that combines the excitement of a well-told story with the dramatic appeal of history in the making.