I Will Never See the World Again

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This book is both chilling and heartening, a message from a parallel universe not as distant as we might think. With humour, passion and remarkable equanimity Altan reminds the reader of what, and who, is at risk. And what is worth fighting for. In 2018, after two years of detention, Ahmet Altan and his brother Mehmet were sentenced to life imprisonment. It is a dark time for Turkey and for Altan, but as he notes at the end of this fortifying book: “I can write even in the dark.” He gets pulled into the interrogation office. The police officer sits down and offers him a cigarette. Altan says, “No, I only smoke when I’m nervous.” The destiny I put down in my novel has become mine. I am now under arrest like the hero I created years ago. I await the decision that will determine my future, just as he awaited his. I am unaware of my destiny, which has perhaps already been decided, just as he was unaware of his. I suffer the pathetic torment of profound helplessness, just as he did. I believe this is an important book, especially nowadays with the decline of democracy all across central and eastern Europe, but also in the West, because it shows you how fragile democracy is and how it must be defended ultimately by the people, because you cannot trust the judicial system or the media to do it alone. When the Victorian prisons that we still use today were first built, they were based on a sort of monastic ideal. Prisoners would have to live in strict silence and were only allowed to read religious literature. The state believed that in such focused conditions people would be seized by their conscience and reflect on how to atone.

Vyrastal som v dome plnom kníh. Počas môjho detstva vykúkali spoza každého rohu. ....Vo väzení som znášal najťažšie život v prostredí bez kníh. Čuduj sa svet, nakoniec nám predsa len dali zoznam kníh v knižnici. Pripomínal tak trocha smetisko s kde-tu zastrčenou perlou. Na zozname bolo veľa úplne nanič kníh, ale aj tituly, o ktorých by si človek nikdy nepomyslel, že ich nájde vo väzenskej knižnici. ...Keď som si už začal myslieť, že moja snaha výjde nazmar, v jedno ráno sa otvoril priezor v strede dverí a dnu mi vhodili knihu. .....Život sa zrazu úplne zmenil, prasklina v najhlbších útrobách dala do pohybu celý kontinent. V tej chvíli som viac necítil bezmocnosť, samotu, ani chaos. " Down there in the underworld of Turkey’s courts and prisons where words have little meaning, but can exact a high price, Altan reflects on his motives. Why is he here? Is it his vanity or his love of truth? Should he just keep quiet? Is it, in the end, worth it? That was the ideology. But in reality, it turned out that prisons are perhaps the most antithetical environments for moral growth. Put a human around that much violence and in that state of deprivation and their priority will be for survival, not salvation. For a moment, I had an irresistible urge to get up, hold the iron bars and shout, ‘Let me out of here. Let me out of here, I am suffocating.’ Eloquent and profoundly affecting…Altan's account of living with courage and dignity in grossly unjust circumstances is a testament to human endurance, joining the ranks of the greatest prison memoirs." - The Herald (Scotland)In Turkey, as in many other countries, writing is a dangerous occupation. Altan has spent his working life skating on thin ice: he has had over 200 court cases against him and carries a gun for self-defence. However, it is just as easy to be arrested for what you didn’t write. After all, “subliminal messages” are hard to disprove. Altan is damned both ways. You can imprison me but you cannot keep me here. Because, like all writers, I have magic. I can pass through your walls with ease.” I am looking after a parakeet,’ the voice answered. ‘He was born in the prison, then his mama died. I raised him.’ I was like Julius Caesar, who, as soon as he was informed that a large Gallic army was on its way to relieve the siege at Alesia, had two high walls built: one around the hill fort to prevent those inside from leaving and one around his troops to prevent those outside from entering.

With the wind howling, there wasn’t time for arguments. Qiangzi gave Zhang a final push, and Zhang marched on.

Success!

In a matter of hours I had traveled across five centuries to arrive at the dungeons of the Inquisition. The winner of the prize will be announced on 19 November, joining previous winners including Serhii Plokhy, who took the award last year for Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy, Antony Beevor and Jonathan Coe. Baillie Gifford prize 2019 longlist In putting the emphasis on the power of the imagination to transcend the physical incarceration, this sounds reminiscent of Jean Genet, the famous French prison writer, who basically just fantasizes his way out of his cell, which actually led to him physically coming out of the cell because he was championed by the intellectuals of the day. I can’t see that happening in Turkey. Like everyone else, I was insignificant, what I had been living through was insignificant, this cage, too, was insignificant, the distress that suffocated me was insignificant and so too was the evil I had met. Probabil că nici un alt tip de scenă nu face mai bine un individ să arate asemenea unui criminal ordinar precum cea în care este pus să înainteze într-un șir uman zdrențăros: pantaloni boțiți, maiouri jegoase, șlapi desperecheați, păr încâlcit și bărbi neîngrijite."

V imagines that today her father’s soul is trapped, spinning in an infinite void, as if he is in a sort of limbo. Her imagery reminds me of that Brodsky quote, “Prison is essentially a shortage of space made up for by a surplus of time; to an inmate, both are palpable.” She writes The Apology in his voice. He tells the story of the sexual and emotional abuse with painful precision, only V has endowed him with something he never had when he was alive—the capacity to recognise what he’d done, to feel empathy and remorse and the desire to apologise. My two high walls were built with a single sentence to prevent the mortal threats from entering, and the worries accumulating in the deep corners of my mind from exiting, so that the two could not unite to crush me with fear and terror. Over the past few months, the mountaineer has been studying English so he can communicate with people outside China. In the future, he hopes to climb the rest of the world’s tallest mountains and set foot on the North and South Poles.

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It is said that the dead do not know that they are dead. According to Islamic mythology, once the corpse is placed in the grave and covered with dirt and the funeral crowd has begun to disperse, the dead also tries to get up and go home, only to realize when he hits his head on the coffin lid that he has died.