The Bridge of the Golden Horn
Author | : Emine Sevgi Özdamar |
Publisher | : Profile Books |
Total Pages | : 276 |
Release | : 2007 |
ISBN-10 | : STANFORD:36105131697968 |
ISBN-13 | : |
Rating | : 4/5 (68 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: The Bridge of the Golden Horn is a coming-of-age novel, a sentimental education that is also a political, cultural and intellectual one. In 1966, at the age of 16, the unnamed heroine lies about her age and signs up as a migrant worker in Germany. She leaves Istanbul, works on an assembly line in West Berlin making radios, and lives in a women's factory hostel. But ?zdamar's novel is not about the problems of assembly line work - it's a witty, picaresque account of a precocious teenager refusing to become wise, of a hectic four years lived between Berlin and Istanbul, of a young woman who is obsessed by theatre, film, poetry and left-wing politics. These are sometimes grim years, particularly in Turkey, but they also have a hope and optimism that seem almost unimaginable today.