Synopses & Reviews
Angry in Piraeus is the story of the creation of a translator, as Maureen Freely explores what it was in her childhood that led her to become a traveler across the spaces that exist between countries, languages, and forms. She offers rich descriptions of her itinerant upbringing in America, Turkey, and Greece, vividly evoking what it means to be constantly commuting between worlds--geographical, conceptual, linguistic, and literary--in search of a home, or a self, that is proving elusive. She tells of her transition from novelist to translator--and, specifically, translator of Nobel Prize-winner Orhan Pamuk--and of how eventually she found it necessary to give up translating Pamuk in order to return to her own fictional worlds.
As in the entire Cahiers series, the authorand#39;s words are complemented by beautiful artworks, in this case delicate collages created by Japanese artist Rie Iwatake that journey through their own in-between spaces in a captivating play of analogies and metaphors. The resulting book is an unforgettable meditation on translation, writing, and life itself.
Review
"A compelling and beautifully written account of family stories and secrets, and a heartfelt call to peace and harmony." Sorcha Hamilton Irish Times
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"Gripping and thought-provoking." Alev Adil
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"This is a remarkable book." Independent
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"Maureen Freely's introduction is lucid and her translation is fluid and elegant, amplifying the merits of this earnest memoir." Guardian
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"Gripping and thought-provoking ... Spare and elegant ... This moving testimony transcend politics and brings the Armenian tragedy to life with tenderness as well as sadness." Alev Adil
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"A striking memoir." Independent
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"My Grandmother ... refuses to be sidetracked by the issues it raises: it is a tribute to the woman, an expression of shared pain, and a plea for reconciliation. That it was a bestseller in Turkey should tell you something." Elif Shafak
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"The author's acute sensibility and ear for detail set this account apart ... two brave voices ring through this book: hers and her grandmother's." Fani Papageorgiou Financial Times
Synopsis
When Fethiye Cetin was growing up in the small Turkish town of Maden, sheknew her grandmother as a happy and universally respected Muslimhousewife. It would be decades before her grandmother told her thetruth: that she was by birth a Christian and an Armenian, that her namewas not Seher but Heranush, that most of the men in her village hadbeen slaughtered in 1915, that she, along with most of the women andchildren, had been sent on a death march. She had been saved (and tornfrom her mother s arms) by the Turkish gendarme captain who went on toadopt her. But she knew she still had family in America. Could Fethiyehelp her find her lost relations before she died? There are anestimated two million Turks whose grandparents could tell them similarstories. But in a country that maintains the Armenian genocide neverhappened, such talk can be dangerous. In her heartwrenching memoir, Fethiye Cetin breaks the silence.
Synopsis
A passionate memoir of the author's discovery of her grandmother's true identity.
Synopsis
As a child in Turkey, Fethiye Çetin knew her grandmother as a happy and well-respected Muslim housewife. Decades later, her grandmother revealed the truth: she was by birth a Christian Armenian, and most of the men in the village where she grew up were slaughtered in 1915. In this heartwrenching memoir, Çetin tells a powerful story that breaks the silence surrounding the Armenian genocide.
Synopsis
Growing up in the small town of Maden in Turkey, Fethiye Çetin knew her grandmother as a happy and respected Muslim housewife called Seher.
Only decades later did she discover the truth. Her grandmother’s name was not Seher but Heranus. She was born a Christian Armenian. Most of the men in her village had been slaughtered in 1915. A Turkish gendarme had stolen her from her mother and adopted her. Çetin’s family history tied her directly to the terrible origins of modern Turkey and the organized denial of its Ottoman past as the shared home of many faiths and ways of life.
A deeply affecting memoir, My Grandmother is also a step towards another kind of Turkey, one that is finally at peace with its past.
Synopsis
In this cahier,and#160;Maureen Freely explores what it was in her childhood that led her to become a translator, a traveller across the spaces that exist between countries, languages, forms. She describes her itinerant upbringing in America, Turkey, and Greece, vividly evoking what it means to be constantly commuting between worlds and#8211; geographical, conceptual, linguistic, literary and#8211; in search of a home, or a self, that is proving elusive. She details how she went from being a novelist to being Orhan Pamukand#8217;s translator; why too it was necessary for her at one point to cease to be his translator and return to her own fictional worlds. The cahier is completed by a series of delicate collages by Japanese artist Rie Iwatake: images that journey through their own in-between spaces, in a play of analogies and metaphors.
About the Author
Maureen Freely was born in the United States but grew up in Turkey. She is a celebrated translator, the President of English PEN, and the author of several novels, including, most recently, Sailing through Byzantium.Rie Iwatake was born in South Africa and grew up in Japan. Working in a variety of media, she has exhibited internationally since graduating from Tsukuba University in 2010 with an MA in studio art.
Table of Contents