In a panel discussion titled "Turkish Literature in India", the Turkish ambassador and author Firat Sunel discussed his books centred around historical fiction set around the aftermath of World Wars. The discussion, which took place on 27th February at the 31st edition of New Delhi World Book Fair (NDWBF), was moderated by Nermin Mollaoglu (a representative from Kalem agency).
Salkim Sögutlerin Gölgesinde translated in Malayalam
Published in 2011, Salkim Sögutlerin Gölgesinde roughly translates to "In the Shadow of the Willows" and has been translated into Malayalam for the benefit of the Indian audience. Based on actual events, this book centres on the friendship between little Ömer and Nika in Meskhetian, where people of different ethnicities, including Armenians, Jews, Georgians and Turks, live. The friendship is tragically interrupted by armed soldiers' overnight removal of more than a hundred thousand people from their villages and exiled to Central Asia by freight wagons. In this tragedy, the author focuses on the displacement of many people in the aftermath of Joseph Stalin's action.
Capturing Displacement of People
Sunel, who comes from a family that experienced uprooting and displacement, plays with similar themes in his book. His book Sarpincic Feneri which roughly translates to "The Lighthouse Family", is the story of a family that has to leave one country and move to another. Told from a child's perspective, while the story emphasises the displacement, it also highlights the idea of the journey. The story is set near the Greek islands along the coast of Turkey.
Firat Sunel's books will soon be published in English by Penguin Random House.
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