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).
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)
“The Stone Building and Other Places“, a collection of short stories and a novella, has been translated to Spanish by Rafael Carpintero Ortega and published by Armaenia Publishing with a ten month month delay due to pandemic: EL EDIFICIO DE PIEDRA The book was originally published in Turklish in 2009, receiving the prestigious SAIT FAIK AWARD the following year. In fact, one of the three stories in the collection, “The Wooden Birds“ had received a Deutsche Welle Award back in 1996 and had been translated to almost all European languages. Actes Sud had published in a collection of short stories by the author under the same tittle.
“The Stone Building “is now in more than ten languages:
French: “ La Batiment de Pierre“ (Actes Sud, 2013)
“Les Oiseaux de Bois“ (Actes Sud, 2009) , adapted into short film in 2010
Swedish: “Stenbyggnaden“ (Ramus, 2013)
Norwegian: “Steinbygningen“ (Gyldendal, 2013)
(The same year the author received „Ord e Grenzen Literary Prize“, a prize given to female writers ignored in their own country.)
Portuegese : “O Edificio de Pedra“(Clube de Autor, 2016)
German: “Das Haus Stein“ (Penguin-Germany, 2019)
English: “The Stone Building and Other Places“ (2019)
Shortlisted for PEN INTERNATIONAL PRIZE
Kurdish: “Avahiya Keviri u En Din“ (Aryen, 2020) copyrights of the book dedicated to imprisoned writers
Greek (Potamos) and Indonesian translations are currently pending due to pandemic and the book is currently being translated into Danish..
Aslı Erdoğan is a writer of literature and columnist, human rights defender, ex political prisoner as well as a particle physicist. She is the author of eight books, novels, novellas, collections of poetic prose and essays, translated into more than twenty languages .She was arrested in 2016 for her collaboration with the pro-Kurdish newspaper Özgür Gündem. Aslı Erdoğan has received several prizes in literature and human rights such as Simone de Beauvoir Award, Kurt Tucholsky Award, Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize, Vaclav Havel Prize among others. Her work has been adapted into theater and acted in Milan, Graz and Avignon, into classical ballet, radio, a short film and finally opera.
“Lire” dergisi tarafından “Geleceğin 50 Yazarı” arasında gösterilen Aslı Erdoğan, 2010 Sait Faik Hikâye Armağanı’nı kazandığı son öykü kitabı Taş Bina ve Diğerleri’nde, çağımızın dilsiz tanıklığını, mekânın bedenin ve imgenin içinden dokuyor, evrensel insanlık acılarını büyük bir ustalıkla seslendiriyor.
“Tutuklu, taş binadan çıkarıp cezaevi arabasına götürülene değin öylece durdu. Dimdik, erişilmez, dilsiz… Rüzgârda savrularak… Bütün tekmelere açık…”
Aslı Erdoğan 