Farewell, My Beautiful Homeland

By (author) Ahmet Ümit Translated by Rakesh Jobanputra

Publication date:

31 October 2019

Publisher

Anthem Press

Dimensions:

204x127mm
5x8"

ISBN-13: 9781785271038

Taking place in Istanbul, Salonika, Paris and Macedonia between 1908 and 1926, Farewell, My Beautiful Homeland is the story of lives that have been turned upside down by rebellion, revolution and war. It is the story of the Greek declaration of independence, of the Jews of Salonika being forced into exile, of the Bulgarians fighting for their independence and of the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the struggle to create a new nation out of its crumbling ruins. It is also the story of one man’s search for his true calling amidst the chaos of a turbulent historical era, the story of a man caught between his love for his country and his love for his woman. Farewell, My Beautiful Homeland is a story of unfulfilled dreams and the call of history. And underpinning it all is one fundamental question, one fundamental struggle: which takes precedence – the state or the people?

Death Begins with the Loss of Our Cities…; Are You Going to Be a Killer?; An Idea Whose Time Has Come; Your Decision; Dogs Smelling Blood on a Hunt; The Meaning of This Empire for Us; Confronting Death; The Ancient Wound; The Essence of the State; Becoming the Hunted; Like Two Wistful Flowers; The World’s Greatest Mystery; The Love That Will Never Fade; What Does a Single Individual Matter?; A Game of Revenge; The Motherland Is Lost; The Only Thing Keeping Me Alive; No Intention of Surrendering; A Man’s Word Is His Honour; An Inappropriate Sense of Compassion; A Token of a Conversation; I Am Not the One to Decide; Miracles; The Ability to Forgive Ourselves; Losing One’s Humanity; No Choice But to Fight; Give Me an Honourable Death; The Walking Dead; Save Yourself, Soldier; Wishing for Help from the Dead; Resign, Your Excellency!; A False Sense of Security; The True Power in the Land; Betrothed to Life, Married to Death; When the Wolf Dies in the Forest; This Is Not Ankara; Vultures Circling Over an Old Man; Ignoble Alliances; A Betrayal of Their Own History; Fighting for a Lost Cause; Evil Stalks This Land; A Malevolent Rain; A Fragmented Homeland, a Disintegrating World; Turning Us All into Killers; When I Began Losing My Country; Farewell, My Beautiful Homeland; Glossary.

Unlike other authors in the genre, Ahmet Ümit does not tamper with the course of history; his plot and his storytelling are constrained by his characters’ story arcs. And this too in a novel that takes place during a highly complex historical period in which it is extremely hard for one to maintain impartiality, a period in history in which it is increasingly difficult to distinguish between the good and the bad and the innocent and the guilty.’ —Koray Sarıdoğan, Kalem Klavye (journal)