A Space Bounded by Shadows

After the 1971 coup, the military holds captive not only the lives but also the dreams of the people in Turkey. Artists, leftists and intellectuals fear for their existence, including the narrator, who flees by sea from Istanbul to Europe. In her luggage: the wish to become an actress and the unconditional desire to make known and keep alive the cultural wealth of her country, which has been so abruptly cut off, without allowing herself to be limited to nothing but her background in the »zoo of languages«. And there, in the centre of a divided Berlin, on the boulevards of Paris, in dialogue with admired poets and thinkers such as Godard, Chekhov, Kafka or Brecht, she finally finds herself in a »respite from hell« once more, where art, politics and life seem to be unboundedly compatible.

Emine Sevgi Özdamar’s new novel is a polyphonic hymn of praise to a post-war Europe in which, for a short time, it seemed possible to break down borders with the means of poetry alone. It is a longing obituary to the friends, artists and acquaintances who accompanied her on her way. Above all, however, it is the powerfully eloquent opening up of a space between threat and security, a space bounded by shadows.

In Özdamar’s novel, the personal biography is linked to the history and political development of Europe. The book deals with crossing the borders between mother tongue and learned languages, with overcoming speechlessness in life in exile. As though in passing, the history of Turkey from the Ottoman Empire to the present is told, and its connection with German and European history, through themes such as nationalism, racism, fascism and Islamisation. At the same time, the story of an artist’s development unfolds, a declaration of love for literature, film and theatre.

It is not a coincidence that the novel begins and ends on the same small Turkish Aegean island opposite the Greek Isle of Lesbos; it becomes the book’s poetic and political point of culmination. In the image of the dead bodies on the island’s beach, past, present and future overlap. The book is not a chronicle, but an immensely vivid picture of temporary conditions that is assembled like a mosaic; it is not an autobiography but a novel, and perhaps a mythobiography.

»Emine Sevgi Özdamar’s A Space Bounded by Shadows is a compelling and wide-ranging read, setting Özdamar’s own (eventful) life against the backdrop of twentieth century European history. An acclaimed actor, director and writer, Özdamar explores themes of migration, identity and language in a book that offers strong parallels with W.G. Sebald’s masterpiece Austerlitz.« New Books in German

»A poet of the disappeared, a poet of the unsayable.« John Berger

»Reading the current account of a woman who left Istanbul more than forty-five years ago, one can only be amazed about the fact that her art was labelled ›migrant literature‹ in the nineties, for this term is far too socio-political to describe Özdamar’s poetic methods. The text is prose and poem, document and fantasy, myth and logos all in one.« Sebastian Fuchs, Die Welt

»One learns many things from this book in its lavish abundance [...] But above all, this is a book that celebrates the elemental power of storytelling.« Roman Bucheli, Neue Zürcher Zeitung

»The view Özdamar offers of being a stranger and being made a stranger, of language empowerment, is one of the book's great gifts to its readers.« Fridtjof Küchemann, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»A Space Bounded by Shadows is a book full of voices, images and scenes. A theatre novel. An artist novel. A salon where the dead walk and talk. A story of friendships. A collection of poems. An exploration of Europe. A mirror of world politics. A permanent journey, between Istanbul and Germany, Paris and Berlin, on this side of the Berlin Wall. A game with words. Magic. Many rooms and doors. A space that grows and grows. And, indeed, the story of a life.« Martina Läubli, NZZ am Sonntag

»The ›highly poetic‹ [in A Space Bounded by Shadows] is definitely not just the ›sound‹, but the elemental experience of this author, who knows to discover a beauty in the world … that can only be made comprehensible in this individual tone of voice.« Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»The kind of emotional immediacy that one experiences in her books has been absent in German literature for a long time.« Marie Schmidt, Süddeutsche Zeitung

»With A Space Bounded by Shadows Emine Sevgi Özdamar has written her life’s novel.« Gerrit Bartels, Der Tagesspiegel

»A Space Bounded by Shadows is a rich, whirling novel filled with effervescent experiences.« Dirk Knipphals, taz. die tageszeitung

»Her last novel was published almost twenty years ago. Which is another reason to be pleased about the publication of A Space Bounded by Shadows this autumn. But above all [one should be pleased] by the fact that it is written in such an immensely stimulating way on numerous levels.« Cornelia Geissler, Berliner Zeitung

»We have been waiting for a book like this for a long time.« Alfons Huckebrink, neues deutschland

»In this both tender and gloomy novel, Özdamar writes breathlessly and with perseverance about finding one’s own literary voice and about the long journey to creating this novel.« Johanna Lenhart, Die Presse

»This novel lets the profile of a remarkable artist emerge all the more strikingly for her readers.« Christoph Schröder, Deutschlandfunk

»An extraordinary book that makes you forget all the usual seasonal stuff.« Helmut Böttiger, Deutschlandfunk Kultur