Back	AT THE OTTOMAN BANK MUSEUM MARİO LEVİ REFLECTIONS OF ISTANBUL IN A WRITER’S EYE Is it possible to really describe a city? To see its colors and hear its sounds? How would you like to follow on the trail of countless old stories to discover a very different Istanbul? Join author Mario Levi, at the Ottoman Bank Museum, on Wednesday, October 13, at 6:30 p.m., for a tour around the city he has written so much about. This might be an occasion for you to meet people you have never seen before or look at familiar streets through a new eye. Born in 1957, in Istanbul, Mario Levi completed his studies in French and Romance Philology in 1980. Throughout that time, he, like so many others, kept diaries which at some point were lost or left incomplete. Mario Levi wrote his first story in 1975 and from 1984 on began contributing articles, mainly music related, to a number of Turkish publications including Şalom, Cumhuriyet, Cumhuriyet Dergi, Stüdio imge, Gösteri, Milliyet Sanat, and Argos. His first collection of stories, Bir Şehre Gidememek published in 1990 won the Haldun Taner Award that same year. In 1991, his second book Madam Floridis Dönmeyebilir (Madam Floridis May Not Return) was published. This was followed, in 1992, by En Güzel Aşk Hikayemiz (Our Most Beautiful Love Story), which he prefers to label simply a "narrative". He began working on Bir Zamanlar İstanbul (Once Upon a Time in Istanbul) in 1993 and the book was completed and published in 2001. During this time he changed jobs often and traveled to a number of cities. In the 4 years he worked first with TRT then with Açık Radyo, he produced around 200 radio programs on world music. Mario Levi, who was also a journalist and ad copy writer for while, is currently a faculty member at Yeditepe University in Istanbul. For further information on this lecture offered by the Museum as part of its Istanbul Lectures series contact (212) 334 22 70. The Istanbul Lectures aim to provide different perspectives and reveal unfamiliar aspects of a city we live in but perhaps know too little about.