Dawn
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
A searing autobiographical novel about a single night in prison suggests how broken spirits can be mended, and dreams rebuilt through imagination and human kindness
“Like Pamuk’s Snow, Dawn is the Turkish tragedy writ small. In contrast to Snow, it places gender at its heart.” --Maureen Freely
In Dawn, translated into English for the first time, legendary Turkish feminist Sevgi Soysal brings together dark humor, witty observations, and trenchant criticism of social injustice, militarism, and gender inequality.
As night falls in Adana, köftes and cups of cloudy raki are passed to the dinner guests in the home of Ali – a former laborer who gives tight bear hugs, speaks with a southeastern lilt, and radiates the spirit of a child. Among the guests are a journalist named Oya, who has recently been released from prison and is living in exile on charges of leftist sympathizing, and her new acquaintance, Mustafa. A swift kick knocks down the front door and bumbling policemen converge on the guests, carting them off to holding cells, where they’ll be interrogated and tortured throughout the night.
Fear spools into the anxious, claustrophobic thoughts of a return to prison, just after tasting freedom. Bristling snatches of Oya’s time in prison rush back – the wild curses and wilder laughter of inmates, their vicious quarrels and rapturous belly-dancing, or the quiet boon of a cup of tea. Her former inmates created fury and joy out of nothing. Their brimming resilience wills Oya to fight through the night and is fused with every word of this blazing, lucid novel.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the wrenching English-language debut from former political prisoner Soysal (1936–1976), first published in Turkey in 1975, a group of leftists live under the constant threat of incarceration and torture. The story opens with a police raid during a dinner party, where the author introduces several dissident characters, and the narrative proceeds from their alternating perspectives. The urgency of the prose and the fluid shifts in points of view underscore the precariousness of the characters' lives during a tumultuous and violent period following a recent coup. These characters had migrated south from Marash to the port city of Adana, both to escape persecution and to start over. There's Mustafa, a teacher who, after his initial arrest, continues to be targeted by the police; Mustafa's uncle Ali, a factory worker who loses all hope after repeated abuse by authorities; and pregnant Oya, whom Soysal portrays as having even less personal autonomy than the others because she is a woman. Soysal also recognizes the power of oppressive governments to corrupt its servants. Policeman Zekai Bey relishes his authority and enjoys punishing others. The environment's inescapable heat and suffocating humidity feels palpable, and the novel powerfully underscores how the threat of violence drives all the characters into suspicion and paranoia. This story of persecution convinces with its urgency and humanity.
