Childhood is not only the beginning of life, but something we continually turn back towards, perhaps we never get out of its grasp. The narrator of Cold Nights of Childhood grows up in a rapidly changing Turkey, where Stalin''s death is celebrated and there is widespread support for America. Following the military coup of 1960, the atmosphere is nationalist, patriarchal, technocratic. A misfit at school and in her family home, she begins to hope that marriage could provide her a way out, though this relationship soon ends in disaster. In search of freedom, new love and happiness, she escapes to Berlin for a little while, but on her return is stuck down a terrible, overpowering depression. Trapped in a psychiatry clinic for five years, she is subjected to electroshock therapy and inhumane treatment by the staff. After finally being released to the care of her friends and family, she makes her first steps in a tentative, halting journey towards recovery. In her unique, unstructured style, Tezer ozlu explores the extremity of one woman''s inner life and the painful pleasures of memory when the outer world is repressive and unyielding. Cold Nights of Childhood is a powerfully vivid, disorienting and bittersweet novel about the determined embrace of life in all its complexity and confusion. Translated into English for the first time by Maureen Freely, this novel is a classic that deserves to stand alongside The Bell Jar and Good Morning, Midnight .

Vorwort
A lyrical autofictional account of the author's fight to survive depression and carve out her own path in 1950s and 60s Istanbul

Autorentext

Tezer Özlü (1943-1986) lived in Turkey, Paris, Ankara, Istanbul, Berlin and Zurich. Cold Nights of Childhood is her first novel translated into English.

Maureen Freely is a writer, translator and Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies and a member of English PEN.

Klappentext

The narrator of Cold Nights of Childhood grows up in a rapidly changing Turkey, where the atmosphere is nationalist, patriarchal, technocratic. As a misfit in search of freedom, love and happiness, she escapes to Berlin, is overcome by depression on her return, and trapped in a psychiatry clinic for five years. After electroshock therapy and inhumane treatment, she is released into the care of friends and family, making tentative steps in a halting journey towards recovery.

In her unique, unstructured style, Tezer Özlü explores the extremity of her inner life and the painful pleasures of memory. Translated into English for the first time by Maureen Freely, this novel is a classic akin to The Bell Jar and Good Morning, Midnight.