Books like Der Koch by Martin Suter

Anthony Bourdain tells the candid, behind‑the‑pan stories of his rise from dishwasher to celebrated chef, mixing culinary insight with personal anecdotes.

A Turkish poet returns home to the snow‑clad city of Kars, where he investigates a wave of suicide among girls forbidden to wear the hijab, uncovering religious fervor, political intrigue and personal longing.

"Since his boyhood in a poor village in Central Anatolia, Mevlut Karataş has fantasized about what his life would become. Not getting as far in school as he'd hoped, at the age of twelve he comes to Istanbul--"the center of the world"--And is immediately enthralled by both the old city that is disappearing and the new one that is fast being built. He follows his father's trade, selling boza (a traditional mildly alcoholic Turkish drink) on the street, and hoping to become rich, like other villagers who have settled the desolate hills outside the booming metropolis. But luck never seems to be on Mevlut's side. As he watches his relations settle down and make their fortunes, he spends three years writing love letters to a girl he saw just once at a wedding, only to elope by mistake with her sister. And though he grows to cherish his wife and the family they have, he stumbles toward middle age in a series of jobs leading nowhere. His sense of missing something leads him sometimes to the politics of his friends and intermittently to the teachings of a charismatic religious guide. But every evening, without fail, Mevlut still wanders the streets of Istanbul, selling boza and wondering at the "strangeness" of his mind, the sensation that makes him feel different from everyone else, until fortune conspires once more to let him understand at last what it is he has always yearned for."--Jacket.

In 1903, a 20‑year‑old Scottish woman sails to China to wed a British attaché, but her life takes a scandalous turn when she becomes involved with a young Japanese count, upending expectations of the British community.