On Freedom Street chronicles the story of a Turkish boy, Mehmet, and his twin journeys, one from the snowy mountain village of his birth to the warm Mediterranean city of Adana, the other from the comforting presence of his mother into the world of other women. Mehmet has grown up as one of ten children, raised in humble surroundings by a mother whose husband vanished years ago. When he is barely an adolescent, he is sent to work for the Erdemir family--Asya, an unmarried women in her fifties, and her two brothers, for whom she keeps house. As a friendship develops between Mehmet and the lonely Asya, he is introduced to Oya, a widow in her late thirties who is Asya's neighbor and friend and through whom Mehmet gradually discovers in himself the capacity for physical passion. Innocent, observant, and profoundly nonjudgmental, Mehmet is never one to question his circumstances. Life is something that unfolds, and he accepts its cruelties and sorrows as well as its strange magic and surprise. Written with a delicate, quiet compassion and a stunning depth of honesty, On Freedom Street is a book about honor, love, and loyalty. But equally it is a story about women--women as mysterious and wise creatures who, in very quiet, unobtrusive ways, keep the world steady and alive.