Book: 10 minutes 38 seconds in this strange world

- Trusting someone is very serious. You can't just talk like that. To believe is to invest heavily.

Leila shook her head. Most people get tickled when they touch their feet or underarms. She was tickled when they touched her neck, but she would not tell him that. It seemed to her that if she just told people about her weak point, they would certainly touch him. She was silent.

Even though it is safe here, as you think, it does not mean that the place is right, parried the heart. Sometimes you feel safest where you don't belong.

Istanbul is a fluid city. It's not forever. And nothing is immutable. Probably, it began thousands of years ago, when the ice melted, the sea level rose, flood waters flooded and all known forms of life were destroyed. Probably, the pessimists were the first to escape from here, and the optimists, apparently, decided to stay and see how things would go. Nalan believed that one of the enduring tragedies of human history is that pessimists survive better than optimists, and this, if you think logically, means that humanity carries the genes of those who do not believe in the human race.
Flooding, the waters pressed from all sides, they drowned everything in their path - animals, plants, people. So there was the Black Sea, and the Golden Horn, and the Bosphorus, and the Sea of Marmara. The bay is all around, the waters have created a piece of land on which one day a powerful city grew.
And it still hasn't frozen, their homeland. Closing her eyes, Nalan heard the excitement of the waters under her feet. They rush, whirl, look for something.
Still changing.

The night I finished this novel, a growing month hung in the sky. I thought about Tequila Leila and my grandmother. Even though the first one is a completely fictional character, and the second is no less real than my own blood, for some reason it seemed to me that they met and became friends like renegade sisters. After all, the boundaries of consciousness mean nothing to women who don't stop singing songs of freedom in the moonlight...

In different cultures, similar customs and melodies appear, and this is strangely encouraging, as is the fact that all over the world in moments of hardship we swing in the arms of our dear people.

Probably, in a city where everything is constantly changing and disappearing, there is nothing to worry about, and you should rely only on the current moment, which is already half past.

D/Ali said millions of Istanbulites used only a small fraction of their potential because of the pernicious proximity of the graves. The hunt for innovations is lost if you remind all the time, they say, death is about to come with its scythe, which glows red in the rays of the setting sun. That is why renovation projects did not lead to anything and the infrastructure could not be built, and the collective memory was no stronger than a napkin. Why create the future or return with thoughts to the past if we are constantly sliding towards thinking about the end? Democracy, human rights, freedom of speech – do they make sense if we all end up die? The arrangement of cemeteries and the treatment of the dead, as D/Ali concluded, are the biggest difference between civilizations.

Sadness enveloped her like a cloak. For her, religion has always been a source of hope, fortitude and love. A kind of elevator that lifted her from the dark basement to the light of spirituality. She was hurt by the thought that the same elevator could, on the contrary, lower other people to the very bottom. The teachings that warmed her heart and brought her closer to humanity, regardless of beliefs, skin color and nationality, can be interpreted in such a way that they will serve to disunity, confusion and discord between people, sow seeds of hostility and lead to bloodshed.

Probably, everyone is afraid of death, but it is much more done by those who all their lives pretended to and performed some kind of duty, who completely obeyed the needs and requirements of other people.

But under this hood there are no directions - heaven and earth merge into a single strip of black canvas. A slightly calmed falcon is still nervous, because the blow can strike at any moment. Now, years later, it seemed to Nalan that religion — as well as power, money, ideology, and politics — were acting exactly like that hoodie. All superstitions, prophecies and beliefs seem to deprive a person of sight, keep him under control, and deep in his soul weaken his self-esteem so much that he begins to fear everything, literally everything.

The night in the cemetery was not at all like the night in the city. Here the darkness was not so much the absence of light as something special - a living and breathing creature. She pursued them like a curious creature - it is difficult to say what exactly she did: warn them of the danger ahead, or tried to push them towards her when the right moment came.

Rules only sometimes remain rules. At other times, depending on the circumstances, they are empty words, absurd phrases or jokes without humor. The rule is a sieve with such large holes that you can push anything through them, they are like chewing gum, which has long lost its taste, but which cannot be spat out.

Nalan already had sufficient experience in this matter and knew perfectly well that, unlike oil and water, these two feelings easily mix. Those who hate you can suddenly show a frenzied desire, and those who seem to love suddenly become angry and cruel as soon as they get what they want.