Like a Sword Wound
by Ahmet Altan
Description
Volume 1 of the Ottoman Quartet
A powerful, beautifully written saga set during the fall of one of history’s greatest empires.
Altan’s “Ottoman Quartet” spans the fifty years between the final decades of the 19th century and the post-WWI rise of Atatürk as both the unchallenged leader and visionary reformer of the new Turkey.
The quartet tells the gripping stories of an unforgettable cast of characters: an Ottoman army officer, the Sultan’s personal doctor, a scion of the royal house whose Western education brings him into conflict with his family’s legacy, and a beguiling Turkish aristocrat who, while fond of her emancipated life in Paris, finds herself drawn to a conservative Muslim spiritual leader.
Intrigue, betrayal, love, war, progress, and tradition provide a colourful backdrop against which the lives of these characters play out. All the while, the society that spawned them is transforming and the Sublime Empire disintegrating. Here is a Turkish saga reminiscent of War and Peace, written in lively, contemporary prose that traces not only the social currents of the time but also the erotic and emotional lives of its characters.
Altan is a fearless, caustic writer, who is not afraid to hide in plain sight a critique against arrogant, anti-democratic leadership that exploits religion and bigotry, letting the reader hear in this historical novels an echo of Turkey’s contemporary politics.
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Rights Information
Sold to Gyldendal (Norway); Pandora (Romania)
Endorsements
“Ahmet Altan is one of the foremost voices in Turkish literature and has much to say to the world.”—Elif Shafak
Reviews
“Like a Sword Wound is a brilliant critique of an authoritarian regime on the verge of collapse.” —The Guardian
“Turn-of-the-century Istanbul, both beautiful and corrupt, comes vividly to life.” —Publishers Weekly
More reviews here: https://www.europaeditions.com/reviews/book/2150d995-af0f-4c45-89e6-c1ec94c80eef
Author Biography
Ahmet Altan, one of today’s most important Turkish writers and journalists, was arrested in September 2016 and is serving a life sentence on false charges. An advocate for Kurdish and Armenian minorities and a strong voice of dissent in his country, his arrest and conviction received widespread international criticism (51 Nobel laureates signed an open letter to Turkey’s president calling for Altan’s release). Altan is the author of ten novels—all bestsellers in Turkey—and seven books of essays. In 2009 he received the Freedom and Future of the Media Prize from the Media Foundation of Sparkasse Leipzig, and in 2011 he was awarded the International Hrant Dink Award. The international bestseller Endgame was his English-language debut, and was named one of the fifty notable works of fiction of 2017 by The Washington Post. Like a Sword Wound is the winner of the prestigious Yunus Nadi Novel Prize in Turkey.
Edizioni e/o
Edizioni E/O and Europa Editions are two independent publishers of quality fiction. The companies were founded respectively in 1979 and 2005 by Sandro Ferri and Sandra Ozzola Ferri. The idea behind Edizioni E/O and Europa is one of cultural exchange rooted in bringing high quality translated fiction into Italian bookshops, but also bringing the best Italian contemporary literature can offer to the American and British market - and the world in general. Our catalog is eclectic, reflecting the founders’ belief that dialogue between nations and cultures is of vital importance and that this exchange is facilitated by literature chosen not only for its ability to entertain and fascinate but also to inform and enlighten. Notable successes at E/O and Europa include: Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which spent almost a year on the New York Times Bestseller list and the IndieBound bestseller list; Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels, including My Brilliant Friend, a New York Times bestseller; Massimo Carlotto's Mediterranean noir series, soon to be a tv show for the Italian network RAI; Ahmet Altan's Ottoman quartet, powerful critique of an authoritarian regime with echoes of contemporary Turkey. Never tired of research, Edizioni E/O is building a list of fresh, strong, experimental new voices in Italian contemporary literature, with an attention to novels with a strong sense of place, sophisticated plots and attentive character development: the works of Sacha Naspini, Fabio Bartolomei, Massimo Cuomo are already known internationally as a new wave of what made Edizioni E/O and Europa Editions one of the most adventurous and succesful publishers of the last ten years.
View all titlesBibliographic Information
- Publisher Europa Editions
- Orginal LanguageTurkish
- ISBN/Identifier 9781609454746
- Publication Country or regionUnited States
- Pages352
- ReadershipCollege/Tertiary Education
- Publish StatusPublished
- Original Language TitleKılıç Yarası Gibi
- Original Language AuthorsAhmet Altan
- Copyright Year2018
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