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'A deeply moving memoir... We owe Ahmet Altan a tremendous debt for the strength he has shown in sharing his story with us' Jon McGregor Written from the confines of a prison cell in Istanbul, one of Turkey's greatest living novelists reflects upon hope, despair and the light literature can bring to even the darkest places. The destiny I put down in my novel has become mine. I am now under arrest like the hero I created years ago. I await the decision that will determine my future, just as he awaited his. I am unaware of my destiny, which has perhaps already been decided, just as he was unaware of his. I suffer the pathetic torment of profound helplessness, just as he did. Like a cursed oracle, I foresaw my future years ago not knowing that it was my own. Confined in a cell four metres long, imprisoned on absurd, Kafkaesque charges, novelist Ahmet Altan was one of many writers persecuted by Recep Tayyip Erdogan's oppressive regime. In this extraordinary memoir, written from his prison cell, Altan reflects upon his sentence, on a life whittled down to a courtyard covered by bars, and on the hope and solace a writer's mind can provide, even in the darkest places. Longlisted for the 2019 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 'It is something special to visit Ahmet Altan in his prison, and to leave with an unexpected feeling of elation, motivated by the sheer, towering greatness of the human spirit' Philippe Sands 'Read this - it will explain why you ever read anything, why anyone ever writes' AL Kennedy

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A magnificent coming-of-age story about freedom and desire by the acclaimed author of I Will Never See the World Again. Winner of the Prix Femina Étranger.Istanbul is changing, its society decomposing. When his father dies, Fazil learns that one's entire world can change in an instant. Lost are the security and privileges of his family, replaced now by the precarity of poverty. And yet, despite this dramatic change in circumstance, Fazil pursues his desire to study literature at university.As he attempts to navigate this new, darker world, he begins a romance with Sila, a striking young student who shares his love of Virginia Woolf and who understands his current predicament. But it is the exuberant Madame Hayat, passionate, carefree and with a vivacious lust for life, who captivates Fazil. He attempts to create a new freedom through her person, but around them, the dangers of their changed society grow and increasingly surround them.Written from his prison cell, Ahmet Altan's latest novel offers an insightful view of modern Turkey and shows how, even in the darkest times, light can be found.

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