If you’ve read some Turkish literature, chances are you know the excellent work of Turkish authors Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak. These prolific writers have best-sellers that are published in dozens of languages around the world and frequently compete for international awards. Pamuk himself won the Nobel Prize in 2006. For a glimpse into their repertoire, start with Pamuk’s My Name is Red and his Istanbul: Memories and the City, a work that combines autobiographical vignettes with a history of the city itself. Or get books by Shafak like The Forty Rules of Love (a story built around the 13th century poet Rumi) and her 2021 novel The Island of Missing Trees.
However, there are many gems of Turkish literature beyond these two writers. Do you know Latife Tekin, for instance? Or Yashar Kemal, Buket Uzuner and Moris Farhi? We explore these four authors below, highlighting their outstanding work and the rich insights they provide about Turkish history and culture.
But first, I want to give a huge thank you to Dr. Danielle V. Schoon for the suggestions that led to this post. Dr. Schoon is a cultural anthropologist with publications in performance and the politics of identity in Turkey. She teaches the Turkish Studies curriculum at The Ohio State University, including a course on Turkish literature in translation.
Now on to these outstanding authors…
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Yashar Kemal (1923-2015)
Born in a village in southern Turkey, Yashar Kemal frequently depicted the hardship of village life in his writing. More broadly, he did not shy away from political and social critique, both in his writing and his public comments. As a Turk of Kurdish background, he strongly defended the rights of minorities and was sentenced for speaking out against racism in Turkey.
His novel Memed, My Hawk won Turkey’s Varlik literary prize in 1956 and later contributed to Kemal’s nomination for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1973. The book’s plot draws on folktales and Kemal’s own village upbringing. A young villager Memed turns outlaw and stands up to the region’s oppressive landowner who was exploiting local farmers. This focus on injustice and vivid depictions of country life made Kemal a pioneer in the genre of “village literature.” This novel also became an international success, one of the first Turkish novels to do so.
Latife Tekin (born 1957)
Born in Kaseri in central Turkey, Latife Tekin is a Turkish author whose style beautifully incorporates folklore and magical realism. Her 1983 novel Dear Shameless Death follows young Dirmit as her family moves from the country to the city. The tale provides insightful commentary on social change in modern Turkey and the status of women, drawing on Tekin’s own experience moving to Istanbul.
In 1984, Tekin published Berji Kristin: Tales from the Garbage Hills, a series of vignettes about life in an unzoned slum. With no one hero or main character, the book focuses on the slum itself — from its creation atop a garbage dump to the many individuals who reside in its huts and shacks. The tale draws directly from Turkish history. Economic and industrial growth in the 1960s led to a massive influx of workers from the countryside and a severe housing shortage.
Buket Uzuner (born 1955)
Born in the Turkish capital of Ankara, Buket Uzuner started as a travel writer before turning to novels. Her 1997 book Mediterranean Waltz is both a love story and an anti-war novel. As a civil war breaks out, the protagonist Duna is suddenly conscripted into the army. The plot then weaves back and forth, following his path in the military, his childhood in Istanbul, and the fate of his friends and family. Looking back at Duna’s youth, we find a complex web of friendships and love that bridges across social classes.
Uzuner’s adept portrait of human relationships continues in her other works, including novels like Two Green Otters and The Sound of Fishsteps.
Moris Farhi (1935-2019)
The author, poet and screenwriter Moris Farhi, also born in Ankara, came from a Sephardic Jewish family. After moving to London, Farhi established himself as a writer of novels and TV/film scripts. He contributed to the Dr. Who television series, for instance, and penned popular novels Children of the Rainbow and Journey Through the Wilderness. Farhi was also a staunch advocate for freedom of expression. He served in numerous roles in the organization PEN International, defending free expression and campaigning on behalf of imprisoned and persecuted writers.
His 2004 novel Young Turk is an intricately crafted work, joining together 13 different stories, each with a different narrator. More uniquely, these individuals are of different ethnicities – Muslims, Christians, Jews, Kurds, gypsies, etc… It captures the turbulent World War II era through this lens, showcasing Turkish society before, during and after the war. In this turbulent time, we see teenagers discovering adolescence, and the young and old finding love. But characters also struggle with the effects of Hitler’s Germany, assisting Jews to flee into Turkey and reacting to new taxes imposed only on Turkish minorities.
What Next?
Start reading! Look for these books at your local library. Or, better yet, support these Turkish authors by purchasing their work for yourself. Go to your neighborhood bookstore or visit online sites like Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, or Powell’s.
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