Fatal Attraction

A scantily clad blonde poses in front of a minaret on the cover of Yulia Shilova's novel "Turkish Love, or Hot Nights in the East." Inside is a cautionary tale of Russian vacationers who fall in love with Turkish resort staff, only to be fleeced of large sums, cheated on and, in one case, infected with HIV.

With its low prices and minimal visa requirements, Turkey has become a popular vacation destination for Russians, who flock to the country for its Mediterranean beaches, five-star hotels and -- according to Shilova -- at least one more tempting attraction.

"When our women come to Turkey, they are tired of their lives, of not getting any attention from men. When a man speaks tender words to them and makes promises, turns their heads, ... they believe it," Shilova said. "They put on rose-colored glasses."

The heroine of "Turkish Love" falls for a hotel entertainer and begins to visit him regularly, bringing him gifts of whiskey and cell phones. Finally, he cleans out her hotel safe and disappears. In another plot strand, a woman leaves her husband for a spa attendant and has a nervous breakdown when she realizes that he is being unfaithful on a grand scale. Yet another woman finds that she has been infected with HIV during her holiday fling.

A specialist in what her publisher calls "daring criminal melodramas," Shilova has written 40 novels. Bound in distinctive orange covers, they are sold in kiosks, supermarkets and bookstores, and have print runs of around 200,000 copies.

"Turkish Love," released by Eksmo in January, was partly inspired by a friend who is "delirious" about her Turkish boyfriend, the author said. "She considers it love, but practically speaking, he squanders all her money and comes here to Moscow with his brothers. And she, a self-sufficient woman, takes him to all the most expensive restaurants and clubs."

Now, there may be plans to create a television series based on the novel. In a recent telephone interview, Mikhail Strunkov, the executive director of Moscow-based film production company Kino Alyans, said that the company had held talks with Shilova and would shoot a 10-part drama series on location in Turkey this summer. The series has yet to be acquired by a television channel, Strunkov said.

Although it is still on the drawing board, the series earned some publicity this winter when media reports suggested that Turkish pop star Tarkan would act in the series. Strunkov said that the company had an agreement with Tarkan that he would play the male lead.

However, Ozlen Turasi, a spokesman for the singer, wrote by e-mail last week that Tarkan was not involved with the project.

Kino Alyans was founded in 2004 and its creative director is Valentin Gneushev, the former director of the Yury Nikulin Circus on Tsvetnoi Bulvar. The company is not well-known, and none of its productions has been broadcast yet. A series that the company recently filmed is due to air this fall, Strunkov said, without elaborating.

The question of Tarkan's involvement is not the only mystery surrounding "Turkish Love." Shortly before the book's publication, some texts that were touted as extracts from Shilova's novel appeared on the Novy Region web site. Supposedly prophesying bird flu, they tell the story of a Russian woman who develops a fever soon after seeing a headless chicken running around the grounds of her filthy hotel.

Though it turned out that the extracts were not actually in the book, they led to a small whirl of publicity as several Russian web sites reported that the Turkish Tourism Investors Association had called for Shilova and the film crew to be denied entry to the country.

But Oktay Varlier, the president of the Turkish Tourism Investors Association, wrote by e-mail last week that he had not previously heard of the book and "therefore it is impossible for our Association to issue a press release protesting it."

Although Shilova has traveled to Turkey about 20 times, the book is not based on personal experience, she said. The author is in a long-term relationship with a businessman whom she met through mutual friends, and she claimed that she had never been tempted by a holiday romance. "With my views on life, that's simply impossible, because I'm pragmatic," she said.

Nonetheless, the author conceded that it is possible to find love in Turkey. In the book, she gives one example: a woman named Vika, who has married a wealthy businessman and lives in a mansion in Istanbul. However, Shilova makes a point of describing her "sad eyes." The heroine eventually finds happiness with a Russian man -- albeit one who previously cheated on his wife with her.

Meanwhile, Shilova's next novel is already on sale. Its title is "Married to an Egyptian, or the Arab Heart in Rags."

"Turkish Love, or Hot Nights in the East" (Turetskaya Lyubov, ili Goryachiye Nochi Vostoka) is published by Eksmo.