Aviana Publishing House published Suat Derviş’s “The Prisoner of Ankara” in Bulgarian.

The Prisoner of Ankara is the first Turkish novel published in France. It was published by Les Editeurs Français Reunis in 1957.

Vasfi is a student at medical school and murders one of his friends during a fight at a night club. He stays in prison for 12 years and after his release, he is unable to find a job neither in Ankara nor Istanbul. However, he does manage to locate Zeynep, his lover during his student years, but she is now the owner of a shop and has become a bad-tempered and stingy woman. Vasfi never shows his face to her, he just follows her around and hesitates to contact her. One cold day, sleeping in a train station, he is offered shelter in the house of an old woman, because he reminds her of her lost son. Vasfi accepts the offer and starts living with her. After a while, he meets a friend from prison, who helps him find to a job as a construction worker. All in all, it is the tragic story of a young idealist, whose life turns to ruins, but he still succeeds in surviving.

“A Gorky influence can be seen in the novel. The book is written with a similar simplicity. The Prisoner of Ankara is the first Turkish novel to be translated into French. The most interesting part is that the author has translated her own work… This translation is a testimony to her praiseworthy knowledge of French.” – Le Monde

28 November 2022