Dawn
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- 8,99 €
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- 8,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
A vital and eloquent portrait of modern Turkey drawn from the lives of its ordinary citizens
Written in prison, the stories in Dawn offer an unfamiliar glimpse of Turkey and the Middle East. They capture the experiences of the people behind the headlines, the voices that so often go unheard.
The young cleaning woman whose bus to work gets caught in a violent protest; the little girl fleeing across the Mediterranean from Syria with her mother; the illegal underage workers building jails; the victim of an ‘honour killing’. Tragedy collides vividly with sharp humour and political satire as inmates have their letters vetted by committee and a bus driver tricks a young idealist.
The first fiction from the imprisoned progressive politician, former leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party and presidential candidate Selahattin Demirtas, this collection is essential reading. With warmth, wit and brutal insight, he illuminates everyday existence in Turkey and brings his characters to startling life.
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Demirtas (Seher) explores resistance, persistence, and perseverance in modern-day Turkey in these 12 perceptive stories. Demirtas, a former Turkish parliament member for the People's Democratic Party, has been controversially imprisoned since 2016 for spreading propaganda, and writes in the collection's introduction, "What readers or voters expect from the writer and politician are, in essence, the same: to be inspired." Through such characters as Nazan, a mechanic's son; B kes, a student who has won the chance to attend a conference in America; and an unnamed lawyer traveling across country by bus, Demirtas constructs lively personalities who envision a greater, more open Turkey. Throughout, Demirtas finds optimism in dire situations. In the collection's standout, "It's Not What You Think," one man's failed suicide attempt becomes a spiritual moment of revelation after he walks to the local market with a new sense of meaning: "this ray of light completed a journey that had lasted millions of years. Who could have known when it set out all that time ago that it would turn the rest of my life upside down?" Demirtas shares an optimistic vision for Turkey's future with these neatly constructed, affecting stories of dreamers from all walks of life.
