The narrator lives in the more progressive part of the city, but the small community they belong to, of journalists, activists and writers is under contstant threat by the repression of the state. The novel holds the middle between a diary and a reflection on life in Istanbul, seen from a Western European's eyes. She's had a relationship with a Turkish militant and she's only half part of the community in which she lives. She has friends, but many wonder why she stays in the country.
Her personal story unfolds through clearly delineated scenes, and while her own personal life gets more complicated and uncertain, she gradually lays bare the structural failures in the Turkish dictatorship and the murder of Hrant Dink, not as a journalistic objective narrative, but as a personal one.
Manteau's writing style is easy and with a very natural flow, as if she is telling the story rather than giving a real life reproduction. In this sense, there are no real dialogues, just personal descriptions of how past dialogues happened. Interestlingly enough, this narrows the distance between reader and writer, as if you're telling the story yourself rather than observing what's happening.
Intimate and relevant.
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