Walking along the crumbling defensive walls of Istanbul and talking to those he passes, Alexander Christie-Miller finds a distillation of the country’s history, a mirror of its present, and a shadow of its future.

Caught between two seas and two continents, with a contested past and an imperilled future, Istanbul represents the precipitous moment civilizations around the world are currently facing. To the City seamlessly blends two narratives: the fragile optimism of the present-day and its inhabitants, and the story of Mehmet’s siege and capture of the city in 1453. Those events still loom over the city, as Erdogan – a kind of latter-day sultan – invokes their memory as part of his effort to transform Turkey and resurrect its imperial past.

Istanbul stands at the centre of the most pressing challenges of our time. Environmental decay, rapacious development and a refugee crisis are straining the city to breaking point, while its civil society gutters in the face of resurgent authoritarianism. Yet, Istanbul has endured despite centuries of instability. Christie-Miller introduces us to people who are experiencing the looming crisis and fighting back, sometimes triumphing despite the odds.

This is a meditation on the soul of Istanbul, of its resilience and fortitude. In the defensive walls of Turkey’s largest and most fabled city, Christie-Miller finds a distillation of the country’s history and a mirror of its present. Walk with him and see the danger, beauty and hope.