"In this delightful self-portrait, Martha Thompson proves herself the best kind of memoirist, self-aware enough to reveal the flaws of her younger subject without romanticizing her decisions. Romance real and imagined, international crime, deception-this is the kind of book you read on the subway and realize you've missed your stop."-Dylan Brody, award-winning humorist, storyteller, playwright, filmmaker, and author of Relatively Painless

"Not everyone is as artistically gifted as Martha Thompson, and few lives are filled with as much adventure. But every reader will identify with the longing for love that runs throughout this page-turning memoir."-Rev. Michael Kinnamon, PhD, author of A Rooftop in Jerusalem

"The Rug Dealer expands Martha Thompson's growing-and impressive-body of work, and it is her strongest memoir to date. In this coming-of-age tale she explores her naivete intermingled with duplicities, both of which get her into challenging circumstances. The theme of 'acting' helps Martha explain how she convinces herself to get involved in very sketchy and dangerous situations. The Turkish backdrop and the young artist's struggle to succeed make this a compelling read: It is not difficult to see this memoir being adapted as a colorful limited series or film."-Steven Stiefel, coauthor of Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album and Tomorrow's Flight

"The Rug Dealer is Martha Thompson's page-turning, coming-of-age memoir of the elating, devastating power of first love (especially an exotic, foreign first love) to shape who we want to be, shifting our hopes toward something we never knew we wanted, casting a spell not easily broken. I could barely turn the pages fast enough to keep up with Martha's brave young self on the adventure of a lifetime as she finally becomes who she was meant to be."-Sephe Haven (Isadora O'Boto), author of My Whorizontal Life: An Escort's Tale and A Someday Courtesan, solo show My Whorizontal Life: The Play, and podcast My Index to S$X