Aslı Erdoĝan er født i 1967 i Istanbul. Hun har en mastergrad i atomfysik og har arbejdet for CERN, men afbrød sin videnskabelige karriere for at blive forfatter. Hun debuterede i 1994 med romanen Kabuk Adam og har siden skrevet syv romaner, foruden en lang række noveller og essays samt utallige klummer og artikler om blandt andet tortur i tyrkiske fængsler, vold mod kvinder og undertrykkelse af kurderne i Tyrkiet, til både tyrkiske og udenlandske aviser og magasiner. Hendes bøger er oversat til mere end tyve sprog og hun har modtaget flere litterære priser, heriblandt Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (2020), Václav Havel Price (2019) og Svensk PENs Tucholsky Award (2016).
Galatas gränder vindlar fram, men är idag övervakade som en öppen labyrint. Det är där på Istanbuls gator som Aslı Erdoğan ger sig ut på en vandring utan återvändo, en författares sökande efter sig själv. Fragment, vittnesmål, meditationer och iakttagelser blir till en mosaik av minnen med oöverträffad poetisk kraft.
I Requiem över en förlorad stad möter Aslı Erdoğan minnena från Istanbul. Den stad för hon föddes under dramatiska omständigheter, där hon har vandrat gatorna fram natt efter natt, där de våldutsatta kvinnorna möts på kaféerna. Den stad och det språk som i exilen nu har gått henne förlorat.
La Ville dont la Cape est Rouge (Actes Sud, translated by Esin Soysal Dauvergne , 2003, Babel no 1577,soft cover edition 2019) https://www.actes-sud.fr/node/65784
Le Silence meme n’est plus a toi (Actes Sud, Julien LaPeyre,2017, Babel no 1653), audiobook: by Catherine Deneuve (Les Femmes) https://www.actes-sud.fr/node/57836
Il Mandarino Meraviglioso (Keller Editore, 2014, translated by Giulia Ansaldo)
Neppure il silenzio e piu tuo(Garzanti, 2016, translated by Giulia Ansaldo)
La Citta del Mantello Rosso (Garzanti, 2020, translated by Giulia Ansaldo)
English (The Soft Skull and The City Lights), German (Unionsverlag, Knaus, Penguin Germany), French (Actes Sud), Italien (Keller, Garzanti), Norwegian (Gyldendal), Swedish (Ramus), Greek (Potamos), Danish (C&K Verlag, Underskoven), Dutch (Degeus), Portuegese(Clube do Autor), Croatian (Fraktura), Romanian (Polirom), Bosnian (Buybook), Bulgarien (Agon, Paradox), Macedonian and Albanian (Gotan) , Kurdish (Aryen) , Arabic (Cadmos and El Arabia), Spanish (Armenia), Catalan (PEN translation)
“The City in Crimson Cloak”, in its 25th anniversary, has been translated into 15 languages and has made 48 editions, 27 in its native language and three paperback editions worldwide.
»Als würde ich Tabak rollen, forme ich mein Ich zu einer Geschichte, vermische mein Leben mit dem Tabak, mit Wein und mit dem Blau und dem Schwarz der Nacht, und blase den Rauch in die Leere.«
Auf der Suche nach dem echten Leben, seiner Armut, seinem Lärm und seiner Pracht, schweift Aslı Erdoğans literarisches Ich durch die Welt. Die Spur führt in eine ebenso reiche wie verwüstete Seelenlandschaft, in den Kindheitswald und nicht zuletzt in die verwinkelten Gassen der Stadt Istanbul. Die poetische Reise der preisgekrönten türkischen Autorin erscheint nun erstmals auf Deutsch.
How do you narrate a nightmare? How do you turn hell into literature? How do you turn pain into a song? In her best book so far, Aslı Erdoğan describes the unspeakable, removing its horror without lightening its existential weight. In this rare poetic text, moving between dream and reality, between shadow and light, one woman struggles with her memories from the time when she was incarcerated in the Stone House. In this prison, where political prisoners and intellectuals who defied censorship live together with young children, street pickpockets, who share the same mental and physical pain, a woman seeks her voice, in the way that a writer seeks her words, finally finding an attendant to her sad song in an angel and an old man who, upon dying, bequeathedher his eyes. The wonderful thing about this book lies not in the description of the horrendous living conditions and the horrors of Turkish prisons which we sense behind the veil of the narrator’s dreamlike memories, but in the unexpected tenderness exuded by a song about human atrocity.
Press release by the publisher
“The Stone Building“, receiver of the prestigious Sait Faik Award and a finalist in PEN International has so far been translated into eleven languages.
French (Actes Sud) in November 2012
Swedish (Ramus, 2013)
Norwegian (Gyldendal) in November 2012
Portuegese (Clube de Autor) in February 2017
English (The City Lights) in February 2018
German (Penguin-Germany) in March 2019
Kurdish(Aryen) in August 2020
Spanish (Armenia) in March 2021
Greek(Potamos) in October 2021
Bhasa Indonesian (February 2022)
(Danish translation about to be published)
(Translation into Kurdish Sorani has been proceeding)
Aslı Erdoğan 