A Light Still Burns: 3

“There are three ways to face life: put up with it, fight or flee.”

After eight years in Turkey, Gul leaves her native Anatolia and returns to Germany. Reunited with her husband Fuat, she observes life there from the margins. As age gives her ever deeper insight, she sees society change rapidly, and yet her ability to connect to the people around her remains constant.

Gul’s life is shaped by the melancholy of separation, but with her warm-hearted and accepting outlook she has learned to endure homesickness and longing. Full of emotions and poetry but told without sentimentality, Selim OEzdogan’s account of Gul’s journey is a tender and moving novel about home, cultural identity and a life between two worlds.

“Selim Oezdogan’s latest novel is an affectionate testament to a whole generation of women who are often overlooked. Gul has many names and many faces.” Steffen Radlmaier, Nurnberger Nachrichten

“A luminous conclusion to a trilogy that has no equal in any language. Through the story of one woman who insists, against the odds, on meeting the world with an open heart, it brings grace and dignity to the many unsung millions whose lives have followed the same zigzagging paths between Turkey and Germany over three generations.” Maureen Freely, author of Sailing Through Byzantium and translator of Orhan Pamuk

Author Biography

Selim Oezdogan was born in Germany in 1971 and has been publishing books since 1995. Apart from writing he likes being on stage, practicing yoga and drinking coffee, and is constantly trying to find ways to express the life within him.

Ayca Turkoglu is a literary translator from German and Turkish. Her work has been shortlisted for the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize. She lives in North London.

Katy Derbyshire translates contemporary German writers including Olga Grjasnowa, Clemens Meyer and Heike Geissler. She teaches literary translation and also heads the V&Q Books imprint.