Without a Country

by Ayşe Kulin

Thousands of books reduced to ashes because their authors are Jews, or Communist, or nihilists, but in truth because the power of ideas poses a threat to Hitler.

my heart, too, was reduced to cinders that night.

Letter about burning books

Those eyewitness accounts wormed their way into his dreams, visions of black and curling pages giving way to scattered human limbs and dashed brains.

Visual

Directly in front of him, countless domes and minarets were etched against a scarlet sun and an ever-changing, multihued sky. Gerhard got goose bumps. He wasn’t a particularly religious man, but the vision before him, this ancient city seemingly sinking into the sea along with the setting sun, was surely a masterpiece of that great artist known to some as God.

Tears of gratitude swam in his eyes, too, as he watched the colored lights playing on the dark sea. Life had presented him with a mysterious wrapped box, and out of that box had emerged a country called Turkey. From the moment he had set foot in this land, it seemed as though all he touched would turn to gold.