The catalogue “Books from Turkey” consists of a collection of texts ...

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B O O K S F R O M T U R K E Y
A D A L E T A Ğ A O Ğ L U
Adalet Ağaoğlu, author, playwright and human activist, became Turkey’s most
prized novelist. Considered to be one of the most important living authors in Turkey
and a revered intellectual, the subject matter of her tightly constructed prose is a
balance between a realistic description of the milieu of Turkey which she knows
firsthand and the broader, more human elements of social pressure and gender
prejudice. In an unfamiliar urban world, her characters as newcomers to modernity
struggle with age-old issues complicated by perplexing political, religious, economic
and social forces. She has been rewarded with numerous honours besides the literary
awards she won in the fields of novel, short story and drama. For her perception
of subtle and overt changes in modern Turkish society and her writing entitled
“Modernism and Social Change” Ağaoğlu received the “Turkish Presidency Culture
and Art Merit Award” in 1995. In 1998, Ağaoğlu received an Honorary Ph.D. from
Eskişehir Anadolu University followed by a Ph.D. of Human Letters from the Ohio
State University.
Some of Works: Novels: Ölmeye Yatmak (Lying Down to Die), Fikrimin İnce Gülü
(The Delicate Rose of My Throughts), Bir Düğün Gecesi (A Wedding Night),
Yazsonu (Summer’s End), Üç Beş Kişi(Curfew), Ruh Üşümesi (A Chill in the Soul),
Romantik Bir Viyana Yazı (A Romantic Vienna Summer) Short Story Collections:
Yüksek Gerilim (High Voltage), Sessizliğin İlk Sesi (The First Sound of Silence),
Hadi Gidelim (C’mon, Lets Go), Hayatı Savunma Birimleri (Life Defence Units)
Foreign Rights: Fikrimin İnce Gülü/The Delicate Rose of My Throughts
(Sehnsucht AraratVerlag, Germany), Bir Düğün Gecesi/A Wedding Night (Narodna
Kultura, Bulgaria), (Maj Bratislava, Slovakia), Yazsonu/Summer’s End (Talisman,
USA), (Sphinx Agency, Egypt), Üç Beş Kişi/Curfew (Texas University Pres, USA)
ÖLMEYE YATMAK - LYING DOWN TO DIE
Unionsverlag, Germany, 2008, 299 pages, Novel
Translated by Ingrid Iren
ISBN: 975 458 862 0
www.onkagency.com
The first novel of the trilogy “Narrow Times” (the other two are Bir
Düğün Gecesi and Hayır...) is 299 pages long and begins at 7:22 am
and ends at 8:49 am. Aysel, an Associate Professor at a university,
while lying down to die in a hotel room in Ankara, conducts an inner
dialogue with herself, asking what the use of so much reading and
writing had in her life. In the meantime, she recalls her whole life
from childhood on, in the framework of the political turmoil from
1938 until 1968. Aysel, after about an hour and a half, decides not to
die and leaves the hotel room on a misty April morning.