Ece Temelkuran – TURKEY: the Insane and the Melancholic
Ece Temelkuran
TURKEY: the Insane and the Melancholic
German: Hoffman und Campe, 2015
English: ZED Books, 2016
Taiwan: Walker
A work of literary non-fiction that unites twenty years of award-winning journalism with literary merit, The Insane and the Melancholy relays the unique story of a country gone to hell to anyone willing to listen to a story at once woeful and entertaining. Turkey: the Insane and the Melancholic depicts what you won’t see in the news, articles and political analyses although it determines them all: Turkey’s psyche. The Insane the and Melancholic, commissioned by German publisher Hoffmann und Campe, consists of four chapters:
In the introduction, “This is Turkey!” the author describes the tragicomic and absurd face of the country. The rest of the book is divided into three main sections. The chapter “Yesterday” examines “The Messy Photo Album of Mr. Turkey.” Starting with the picture of Constantinople on the day it became Istanbul, before-unseen images that are in reality turning points in national history narrate the story of Turkey. The chapter “Today” describes the past decade of Turkey; how a country is driven to insanity. The chapter “Tomorrow” indicates that the decade of the Kurds has arrived. The book provides the missing piece in the puzzle, the one that is always left out of analyses of Turkey leading to false conclusions and neverending perplexity.
YESTERDAY: “This is Turkey!”
PRESENT DAY: “You are Turkey, think big!”
THE FUTURE: “What will become of this nation of ours!”