He passed away at the age of 66 o well-known writer of Turkey Mario Levilover of Constantinople, where he spent his entire life and which marked his writing work.

In his novels, Levi deals intensely with the life of 20th century Istanbul that is being lost, as this city with its heavy history is transformed and its multicultural fabric is lost under the weight of the dictates of the nation state built by the Kemalist Turkish Republic.

Being of Jewish origin himself, the life of minorities, their everyday life, the way they perceive their difference in a city and society that is moving away from its cosmopolitan character, find an important place in his work.

He became known in Greece with his novel “Istanbul was a fairy tale”. It is the story of three generations of a Jewish family, in which we also follow the transformation of the City, through the descriptions of its old neighborhoods, collecting myths, images from the past and scenes that span from the 1920s to the 1980s.

In addition to being a writer, Levi also worked as a French teacher, journalist, radio producer, commercial creator, and taught creative writing classes.

Born in 1957 in Istanbul, Mario Levi graduated from Saint Michel French High School in Istanbul in 1975 and from the Department of French Literature of Istanbul University in 1980.

Levi wrote his first short story in 1975 and after 1984 published his articles in several publications. His first book, “Jacques Brel: A Lonely Man”, was published in 1986. His works stand out: “You can’t go to a city” (1990), “Mrs. Floridi will not return” (1991), “The most beautiful our love story” (1992), “Istanbul was a fairy tale” (1999), “The loves of one sentence” (2016).