Like A Sword Wound

(Paperback)

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Description

Altan's Ottoman Quartet spans the fifty years between the final decades of the 19th century and the post-WWI rise of Ataturk as both unchallenged leader and visionary reformer of the new Turkey. The four books tell the stories of an unforgettable cast of characters, among them: an Ottoman army officer, the Sultan's personal doctor, a scion of the royal house whose Western education brings him into conflict with his family's legacy, and a beguiling Turkish aristocrat who, while fond of her emancipated life in Paris, finds herself drawn to
a conservative Muslim spiritual leader. Intrigue, betrayal, love, war, progress, and tradition provide a colourful backdrop against which their lives play out.

All the while, the society to which they belong is transforming, and the Sublime Empire disintegrates. Here is a Turkish saga reminiscent of War and Peace, that traces not only the social currents of the time but also the erotic and emotional lives of its characters.

Reviews

Praise for Like a Sword Wound

"This is an engrossing novel of obsessive love and oppressive tyranny, a tale of collapse that dramatizes the fateful moments of an empire and its subjects." --Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"A breathless portrait of late-19th century Istanbul." --Asymptote

Praise for Ahmet Altan's Endgame, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year

"Although it offers an implicit critique of Turkey's corrupt justice system, Endgame is also comic and charmingly absurd, largely due to the reckless efforts of its characters to gp>et even." --The Washington Post

"Existential questions perfectly blended with atmosphere and rat-a-tat prose; highly recommended." --Library Journal (Starred Review)

"A gripping existential thriller in the vein of Vikram Chandra's Sacred Games (2006)." --Kirkus Reviews

"Atlan's work is at once atmospheric and distant [...]. Each of the threads are artfully crafted and do come together nicely by the end, as promised. Altan's characters are, at times, difficult to penetrate, but his story is pointed, enigmatic, and difficult to forget." --Publishers Weekly

"Endgame is a rare beast: a mystery adventure in the age of internet, of such intimately written humanity that it transcends genre, time and place. If Steinbeck had written The Godfather it might have read like this." --DBC Pierre, author of Vernon God Little

"Endgame is deeply political. It is populated by characters who try to grab that hypothetical treasure on the hill and in so doing tear their local paradise apart. Altan has a deep understanding of what drives them on. It is all very serious but also great fun." --The Guardian

"A deeply compelling and immersive narrative about love, desire, loneliness and landscape. Ahmet Altan is one of the foremost voices in Turkish literature and has much to say to the world." --Elif Shafak, author of The Bastard of Istanbul and The Architect's Apprentice

"Altan pushes the tropes of detective fiction into existentialist territory." --The New Yorker, Briefly Noted

"An impassioned, captivating dance, a waltz between death and desire that does not release you for even a single moment." --Philippe Sands, author of East West Street

"Endgame is a complex and immensely readable book-insightful, disturbing, irritating and riveting." --Andrea Wulf, author of The Invention of Nature

"Extraordinary, delicious, wise." --Linn Ullmann, author of The Cold Song

"A remarkable story about a fascinating part of Turkish history." --The Historical Novels Review

Author Bio

Ahmet Altan, one of today's most important Turkish writers and journalists, was arrested in September 2016 and is serving a life sentence on false charges. An advocate for Kurdish and Armenian minorities and a strong voice of dissent in his country, his arrest and conviction received widespread international criticism (51 Nobel laureates signed an open letter to Turkey's president calling for Altan's release). Altan is the author of ten novels--all bestsellers in Turkey--and seven books of essays. In 2009 he received the Freedom and Future of the Media Prize from the Media Foundation of Sparkasse Leipzig, and in 2011 he was awarded the International Hrant Dink Award. The international bestseller Endgame was his English-language debut, and was named one of the fifty notable works of fiction of 2017 by The Washington Post. Like a Sword Wound is the winner of the prestigious Yunus Nadi Novel Prize in Turkey.