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
KILIÇ YARASI GİBİ
LIKE A SWORD WOUND
A H M E T A L T A N
Ahmet Altan was born in 1950. Upon studying in various middle and high schools, he
attended Middle East Technical University, ultimately graduating from the Faculty
of Economics at Istanbul University. He took on journalism at the age of twentyfour,
assuming positions in nearly all echelons of the profession, from evening
correspondent to editor-in-chief. Altan became a columnist in 1987, suspending
his career in journalism in 1990 while still an editor-in-chief. He worked on several
television programmes. Reprimanded for much of his writing, in 1995 he was
sentenced to a year and a half in prison. He is presently the editor-in-chief of Taraf
newspaper. His first novel, Dört Mevsim Sonbahar (All Four Seasons Autumn),
was published in 1982. His second book, Sudaki İz (Trace in the Water, 1985) was
confiscated and burned via court order on charges of obscenity. Persevering as
a novelist with bestsellers such as Yalnızlığın Özel Tarihi (The Private History of
Loneliness,1991), Tehlikeli Masallar (Perilous Tales, 1996), Kılıç Yarası Gibi (Like
a Sword Wound, 2001), İsyan Günlerinde Aşk (Love in the Days of Mutiny, 2001),
Aldatmak (Cheating, 2002), and En Uzun Gece (The Longest Night, 2005). He also
has several essay collections.
Foreign Rights: İsyan Günlerinde Aşk/Love in the Days of Mutiny (L’amour au
temps revoltes, Actessud-France); Kılıç Yarası Gibi/Like a Sword Wound (Comme
une Bessure de Sabre, Actessud-France), (Der Duft Des Paradieses, Krüger Verlag,
Germany)
Krüger Verlag, Germany, 2002, 320 pages, Novel
Translated by Ute Birgi-Knellessen
ISBN: 9789759920791
alkim@alkim.com.tr
Kılıç Yarası Gibi is an intense novel, which deals with
the human relationships, emotions and love in depth.
The novel begins with the attack by Armenians on
the Ottoman Bank towards the end of the nineteenth
century and the wedding of Şeyh Efendi, one of the
novel’s main characters. The history of the Ottoman
period at the beginning of the twentieth century,
the historical characters as well as the political and
military developments of the time form the backdrop of
the novel which traces the colourful and mysteriously
interconnected lives of both Şeyh Efendi and the
family of one of the high officials of the palace, Reşit
Pasha, just like meticulously knitted lace throughout
the novel. What makes this novel unique is that it has
created its own language and has skillfully moulded
fiction with facts, while shedding light on many
incidents of recent Turkish history that remain in the
dark. (1999 Yunus Nadi Novel Award)