Book excerpt: "I didn't say a thing... because I knew he'd turn anything I said into a pretense to beat me." Ergün Gündüz takes a sober and simple look at the citizens of the Istanbul metropolis, by inserting slivers of life experience into the backseat of a taxi. With each passenger, this two-part volume of Taxi Tales pulls the reader into the dramatic moments of a new life, deftly exploring humanity's darker and lighter sides.