Dawn

September 5, 2022
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.

October 1, 2022
A family dinner party in Adana, Turkey, is interrupted by a police raid, thrusting the lives of all involved into disarray. This autobiographical novel first published in Turkish in 1975 is divided into three parts. The first section, "The Raid," describes a dinner party hosted by Ali of Maraş. Ali's wife, G�lşah, bustles around the kitchen to prepare a fulsome dinner, aided half-heartedly by her sister, Ziynet. Around the dining table are Ali's two nephews, H�seyin and Mustafa, who have fought their way out of their working-class backgrounds with their family's support and become, respectively, a lawyer and a teacher. They are joined by Ziynet's quiet husband, Zekeriya, and Oya--the sole outsider to the family--a journalist recently released from prison who was invited to dinner by H�seyin on a whim. Family tensions fueled by political disagreement bubble and almost erupt but are arrested by a raid initiated by rumors that the dinner is a meeting of anarchists. The novel's second part, "The Interrogation," follows the attendees of the dinner party who are arrested during the raid. We spend the most time with Oya, who remembers the other women detained with her during her previous stint in prison. The novel also offers glimpses into the psyches of the captors and interrogators. The final section, "Dawn," describes the consequences of the raid on the morning after. The novel shifts seamlessly between perspectives. The result is a complex portrait of 1970s Turkey that critiques the senseless violence inflicted by autocratic bureaucracy, with attention to the overlapping injustices of class, ethnicity, and gender that pervade and extend beyond the regime. Startling reflections on beauty and freedom are woven throughout. An exciting translation of a feminist novel that renders a nuanced picture of the conflicting ideologies of 1970s Turkey.

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