'A deeply moving memoir... We owe Ahmet Altan a tremendous debt for the strength he has shown in sharing his story with us' Jon McGregor
Written from the confines of a prison cell in Istanbul, one of Turkey's greatest living novelists reflects upon hope, despair and the light literature can bring to even the darkest places.
The destiny I put down in my novel has become mine. I am now under arrest like the hero I created years ago. I await the decision that will determine my future, just as he awaited his. I am unaware of my destiny, which has perhaps already been decided, just as he was unaware of his. I suffer the pathetic torment of profound helplessness, just as he did.
Like a cursed oracle, I foresaw my future years ago not knowing that it was my own.
Confined in a cell four metres long, imprisoned on absurd, Kafkaesque charges, novelist Ahmet Altan was one of many writers persecuted by Recep Tayyip Erdogan's oppressive regime. In this extraordinary memoir, written from his prison cell, Altan reflects upon his sentence, on a life whittled down to a courtyard covered by bars, and on the hope and solace a writer's mind can provide, even in the darkest places.
Longlisted for the 2019 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction
'It is something special to visit Ahmet Altan in his prison, and to leave with an unexpected feeling of elation, motivated by the sheer, towering greatness of the human spirit' Philippe Sands
'Read this - it will explain why you ever read anything, why anyone ever writes' AL Kennedy
Publisher: Granta Books
ISBN: 9781783785155
Number of pages: 224
Weight: 192 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 13 mm
[This book] speaks for itself with such clarity, certainty and wisdom that only one thing needs to be said: read it. And then read it again... A radiant celebration of the inner resources of human beings... Sublime... A triumph of the spirit - Simon Callow, Guardian
A remarkable memoir by a remarkable writer ... it is something special to visit Ahmet Altan in his prison, and to leave with an unexpected feeling of elation, motivated by the sheer, towering greatness of the human spirit - Philippe Sands, author of, East West Street
Ahmet Atlan's memoir is a message in a bottle, a pearl in a bottle, smuggled out to us from Erdogan's sea of darkness. I Will Never See The World Again is a startling, heartbreaking testament to the author's honesty and resilience, a love letter to his calling, an eye-witness statement from the hell of denunciations and mass arrests that Turkey has become. It stands with those very rare books - by Frankl, Niemoller, Grossman, Levi, Solzhenitsyn - which bring truths from a furnace where lives are burned. Read this - it will explain why you ever read anything, why anyone ever writes - AL Kennedy, author, Serious Sweet
Remarkable... This book glitters with courage, intelligence, and an almost superhuman fighting spirit... What a writer, and what a man - Jane Graham, Big Issue
Remember the name Ahmet Altan! Add him to the great voices writing from prison across the centuries - Boethius, Cervantes, Gramsci, Soyinka, Solzhenitsyn - and be moved to tears and indignation by his story - Ariel Dorfman, author, Death and The Maiden
A deeply moving memoir, which resounds loudly with the sheer pleasure of writing. We owe Ahmet Altan a tremendous debt for the strength he has shown in sharing his story with us. Read this book, share it, and welcome Ahmet into your home - Jon McGregor
Altan's account of living with courage and dignity in unjust circumstances is a testament to human endurance, joining the ranks of the greatest prison memoirs... eloquent and profoundly affecting - Alastair Mabbot, Herald
An invigorating testament to the consolations of the mind... charged with a striking compassion and magnanimity that belies the circumstances of its composition... Ahmet's prose glistens - Brendan Daly, Sunday Business Post
Altan's essays are pithy meditations on freedom, literature, love and culture . . . By reading their works we offer them a lifeline to the outside world, in defiance of those who would silence them - TLS
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