Exile is a collection of short stories with the taste of a novel. The over-riding theme is the sense of melancholy of those who have been alienated from their homeland, from their families or from society. By offering the reader short, vivid glimpses into other worlds; be they of real or fictional characters, Ilhan builds a patchwork of stories which highlight the lives of the dispossessed. As a woman writing in modern day Turkey, she is not afraid to take on the themes of honour killings or the American occupation of Iraq. All stories are open to her empathy and understanding. Born in 1972, Çiler Ilhan worked as a hotelier, a freelance writer (Bogaziçi, Time Out Istanbul, etc.) and an editor (Chat, Travel+Leisure) at different periods of her life. Ilhan, based in Istanbul, now works as the public relations manager of the Çiragan Palace Kempinski hotel. In 1993, she received a prestigious youth award for a short story. The award was a tribute to the memory of Yasar Nabi, a leading publisher and writer. Ilhan's stories, essays, book reviews, travel articles and translations into Turkish have been published in a variety of journals and newspaper supplements.

Exile is a collection of short stories with the taste of a novel which won the author the 2011 European Prize for Literature. Dedicated to those who have been alienated from their homeland, from their families or from society, in this extraordinary collection Ilhan builds a patchwork of stories which highlight the lives of the dispossessed. As a woman writing in modern day Turkey, she is not afraid to take on the themes of honour killings or the American occupation of Iraq, pouring her empathy and understanding into narratives that we usually only hear about through news reports and cold statistics.