Dawn: Stories

by Selahattin Demirtas Narrated by Baris Duyan, Ayse Eldek, Kate Reading

Overview

A new book from Sarah Jessica Parker's imprint, SJP for Hogarth:*Written from behind bars, the unforgettable collection from one of Turkey's leading politicians and most powerful storytellers.
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In this essential collection, Selahattin Demirta¿'s arresting stories capture the voices of ordinary people living through extraordinary times. A cleaning lady is caught up in a violent demonstration on her way to work. A five-year-old girl attempts to escape war-torn Syria with her mother by boat. A suicide bombing shatters a neighborhood in Aleppo. And in the powerful story, 'Seher', a young factory worker is robbed of her dreams in an unimaginable act of violence.
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Written with Demirtas's signature wit, warmth, and humor, and alive with the rhythms of everyday speech, DAWN paints a remarkable portrait of life behind the headlines in Turkey and the Middle East - in all its hardship and adversity, freedom and hope.

Editorial Reviews

MAY 2019 - AudioFile

Narrators Baris Duyan and Ayse Eldek earnestly deliver 12 stories of love, despair, and hope in conflict-ravaged Turkey. In this debut collection by a Turkish political hostage, Duyan and Eldek recount the everyday lives of people affected by political chaos. Listeners may perceive this audiobook as highly political, but the foreword, narrated by Kate Reading, says that it “is not a political tract. It is a collection of short stories.” Duyan’s voice is warm, and his accent varied in the thought-provoking work “It’s Not What You Think,” among others. Eldek’s Turkish accent adds poignancy to stories such as the titular “Seher,” which translates to “Dawn,” and “As Lonely As History.” A fine narration of a provocative and important listen. A.C. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

04/08/2019

Demirtas (Seher) explores resistance, persistence, and perseverance in modern-day Turkey in these 12 perceptive stories. Demirtas, a former Turkish parliament member for the People’s Democratic Party, has been controversially imprisoned since 2016 for spreading propaganda, and writes in the collection’s introduction, “What readers or voters expect from the writer and politician are, in essence, the same: to be inspired.” Through such characters as Nazan, a mechanic’s son; Bêkes, a student who has won the chance to attend a conference in America; and an unnamed lawyer traveling across country by bus, Demirtas constructs lively personalities who envision a greater, more open Turkey. Throughout, Demirtas finds optimism in dire situations. In the collection’s standout, “It’s Not What You Think,” one man’s failed suicide attempt becomes a spiritual moment of revelation after he walks to the local market with a new sense of meaning: “this ray of light completed a journey that had lasted millions of years. Who could have known when it set out all that time ago that it would turn the rest of my life upside down?” Demirtas shares an optimistic vision for Turkey’s future with these neatly constructed, affecting stories of dreamers from all walks of life. (Apr.)

From the Publisher

"Imprisoned Kurdish lawyer and progressive politician Demirtaş delivers a closely observed series of portraits of lives oppressed… A welcome debut collection. One hopes for more—and that Demirtaş will not be silenced by his captors." — Kirkus
 
“[Demirtaş’] visceral tales expose unfathomable darkness with an unshowy, fable-like straightforwardness as the book nonetheless subtly arcs toward hope… Already a publishing sensation with 200,000 copies sold in Turkey alone, Demirtas' empathic collection shines the light that its title promises.” — Booklist

“Selahattin Demirtas’ short stories are beautiful and full of surprises, especially in their bold portrayal of women. A new addition to Turkey’s tragic canon of literature written in prison.” — Jennifer Clement, author of Gun Love and President of PEN International
 
“Selahattin Demirtas is Turkey's most famous political prisoner. He is also that rarest of beasts, a liberal, a democrat and a feminist in a part of the world that is more frequently associated with coercion and intimidation. By turns playful, didactic and full of love for his native Kurdistan, Dawn is a ray of light in the penumbra of today's Middle East.” — Christopher de Bellaigue, author of The Islamic Enlightenment

"Marvelous and deeply affecting, the imprisoned politician Selahattin Demirtas brings to life the great heart and spirit of ordinary Kurdish people. His stories are horrific yet hopeful, heart-wrenching yet humorous, and offer much-needed insight into what everyday life is like in twenty-first-century Turkey." — Christiane Bird, author of A Thousand Sighs, A Thousand Revolts: Journeys in Kurdistan

MAY 2019 - AudioFile

Narrators Baris Duyan and Ayse Eldek earnestly deliver 12 stories of love, despair, and hope in conflict-ravaged Turkey. In this debut collection by a Turkish political hostage, Duyan and Eldek recount the everyday lives of people affected by political chaos. Listeners may perceive this audiobook as highly political, but the foreword, narrated by Kate Reading, says that it “is not a political tract. It is a collection of short stories.” Duyan’s voice is warm, and his accent varied in the thought-provoking work “It’s Not What You Think,” among others. Eldek’s Turkish accent adds poignancy to stories such as the titular “Seher,” which translates to “Dawn,” and “As Lonely As History.” A fine narration of a provocative and important listen. A.C. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2019-03-18
Imprisoned Kurdish lawyer and progressive politician Demirtaş delivers a closely observed series of portraits of lives oppressed.

Demirtaş, held in a high-security prison in Turkey, describes his surroundings as a kind of city of intellectuals who ought to be out serving their country—but there's the rub, for that country, in his case, is not the one that holds him captive but the independent Kurdistan of his hopes. In his introduction, he argues that literature and politics serve the same purpose for the audience, namely, to inspire. Whether readers will in fact be inspired by his grimly matter-of-fact stories is an open question, but certainly they convey the essential terror of living in a system under which violence is a given and families are often separated: A young housecleaner is swept up in a demonstration and beaten and jailed; a prodigal daughter reads in a dying father's notebook that "every stone on the path to loneliness has been laid by nobody else but you"; a young man, shot in the head, contemplates his passing: "My grave rests in Semra's bloodshot eyes, hers beneath a tree in the village." Naturally, some of Demirtaş' stories are set in prison, where he notes the apparent paradox that though the courtyard is tiny, it is infinite, open to the endless circling of its trudging inhabitants, not just the human ones, but the "ants and the spiders with which we share it." And in one ironic piece addressed to a letter-reading committee of prison censors, he darts from memory to memory, evoking his father's way of making a poetry of foul curses and a childhood friend's return in a dream to remind him of the smell of pastirma, "that spicy meat that comes in thin slices"—the stuff, in other words, of the stories he feels compelled to write from behind the walls.

A welcome debut collection. One hopes for more—and that Demirtaş will not be silenced by his captors.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169703313
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	04/23/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

***This excerpt is from an advance uncorrected copy proof***

Copyright © 2018 Selahattin Demirtas

Preface

 

I write this as a political prisoner in a high-security prison in Edirne, Turkey. I imagine most of you will have never received a letter from prison before, so I would like you to think of this preface as just that: a letter written to you from prison.

I was arrested one year and ten months ago while I was a member of the Turkish parliament and the cochairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, known as the HDP, for which nearly six million people voted in Turkey’s last election. I am among the tens of thousands of dissidents who have been targeted by punitive measures normalized under the state of emergency. The government has so far started 102 investigations and filed 34 separate court cases against me. If it has its way, I will face 183 years in prison.

In Western countries, prison is generally thought of as a place where people are punished for their crimes. In Turkey, however, it is a different matter. Behind these walls, there is now a considerable population of qualified and educated people who could serve the needs of any modern, decent-size country. As a human rights lawyer—one who has tirelessly reported rights violations in Turkey’s prisons for a number of years—it is with complete certainty and considerable sorrow that I tell you that, since becoming a lawyer in 1998, I have never known rights to be abused as frequently and consistently as they are now. Turkey has become a country in which those who stand up to the rising authoritarianism in the government—dissidents who share tweets considered critical of the current regime, university students who wave protest banners, journalists who truthfully report the news, academics who sign petitions calling for peace, and members of parliament acting in the public interest— quickly find themselves incarcerated. The government believes that this policy of collective punishment will suppress the millions of dissidents “on the outside,” who are living in a semi-open prison as it is. And so in the nearly two years that I have been imprisoned, there has never been any question in my mind as to why I am here. Like many other dissidents held in Turkey’s prisons, I, too, am paying a necessary price in the name of peace and democratization. Even if I were forced to spend my entire life behind bars, my belief in the right to defend peace, democracy, and human rights would not waver.

In today’s world, literature and politics are thought of as two separate realms, yet I’ve never subscribed to this view. What readers or voters expect from the writer and politician are, in essence, the same: to be inspired. Both are expected to create meaning and to observe their societies closely and reflect upon the issues that those societies face. All in all, there is little difference between the responsibility borne by politicians, particularly those living under oppressive regimes, and intellectuals who prioritize the good of society.

The truth is, I have always believed, both as a politician and a writer, that our struggle must be carried out on two levels. The first is an intellectual struggle fought in the field of language, an area that naturally includes literature. We do this in order to reclaim the concepts of peace, democracy, and human rights, concepts that are being eroded day by day, caught as they are within the insincere boundaries of governments and institutional politics. It is said these concepts are what differentiate the developed world from oppressive regimes, West from East, yet in Western governments they are all too often sacrificed at the altar of political and economic interests. This is precisely what lies at the heart of the political crises raging throughout the world as I write.

Today we find ourselves grappling with a political discourse twisted beyond recognition, with political demands forcefully silenced in the name of peace and stability, and regimes that trample on civil liberties and rig elections as “developing democracies.” Some may think it naive to turn our attention to the role of literature in the midst of such troubles. I would beg to differ. Literature—the art form that arguably comprises the backbone of any culture—remains not only at the vanguard of critical thinking but serves as a catalyst for the thoughts and feelings that in turn create political change. Let us not forget that as long as we continue to breathe life into words, those words will not abandon us.

We must restore to literature its transformative role. We have the capability to create a new language around the concepts of peace, democracy, and human rights, and the values inherent to each. But to do so, political activism alone is not enough: we must also engage intellectually and artistically. If we are sincere in our mission, though, we should start by being honest with ourselves. For it is not only government policies that are to blame for the crisis of democracy, but societies themselves, which are insufficiently organized and therefore unable to balance the power of governments. And so it is by discovering a new way of speaking that we can combat the rise of populism in the developed world, and the authoritarian regimes that are increasing both in number and severity throughout the rest of the world.

In many countries today, and especially in the Middle East, the constraints of gender, religion, and ethnic identities weigh very heavily upon us. As a means of survival, we become withdrawn. Shackled by society, we begin to isolate ourselves. What we need is new forms of struggle, to break free from the chains that confine us, and to tear down the walls that hold us in. Yet it is impossible for us to decide alone just how this new method of resistance should take shape.

Creativity is a collaborative process. Throughout history, the fight for justice and equality owes its innovation to the interaction of ideas, emotions, and collective action. In other words, it is the deeds of men and women, unafraid to make sacrifices for the sake of progressive politics and receptive to new ideas, that have changed the world. Despite the issues that face us today, democracy remains alive and well in many countries. And those institutions responsible for keeping democracy alive, which foster peace and protect human rights, did not arise spontaneously. They were built on a history of social struggle rife with sacrifice and negotiation. Just as the women’s movement has faced numerous pressures throughout history as it transformed from one wave to the next, or how the civil rights movement paid dearly to dismantle racially discriminatory policies, those people under authoritarian regimes today are paying a high price, too, for freedom and democracy. It is up to us to create a new path founded on a nonviolent belief in civil resistance, which does not hesitate to make sacrifices in the fight against oppressive policies. And so, too, must we create a universal language of politics that will speak to the hearts and minds of those living both in the developed world and under authoritarian regimes. I truly believe that it will be the women, the young, and the oppressed people of both the East and the West who will lead the fight to end injustice and inequality and be the creators of this new language.

This book is a collection of stories about everyday people, written by a politician fighting for freedom and equality, after being unjustly imprisoned by an authoritarian regime. It contains short fragments from my own past, which have resurfaced in my memory while I’ve been here in prison. Most politicians believe they speak great truths with their lengthy, grandiose statements. I, on the other hand, have always believed in the power of human stories. I am trapped inside these four walls, but I know that there are thousands of Demirtaşes right now, working the fields. Demirtaş is down in the mines, at the factories. He is at the lecture halls, at the squares, at the rallies. He is at the construction sites. Demirtaş is at strikes, in the resistance. He has just been fired. Demirtaş is unemployed and poor. He is young, he is a woman, he is a child. He is Turkish, he is Kurdish, he is Circassian. He is Alawite. He is Sunni. No matter what he is, he is hopeful and vigorous. What lies at the heart of my relationship with politics is not lofty ideals or abstractions, but ordinary people: ordinary people who are capable of changing the world.

 

Selahattin Demirtaş,

Edirne High-Security

Prison, Turkey

August 17, 2018

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