Farewell, My Beautiful Homeland

Ahmet Ümit was born in Gaziantep in 1960. He is the author of over 20 bestselling novels and is one of Turkey’s and the world’s foremost crime fiction writers. His novels, short stories, plays and essays have been translated into 26 languages worldwide. Rakesh Jobanputra studied at the University of Birmingham and at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. He has translated a number of works of Turkish literature. He currently lives in Istanbul.

Unlike other authors in the genre, Ahmet Ümit does not tamper with the course of history; his plot and his storytelling are constrained by his characters’ story arcs. And this too in a novel that takes place during a highly complex historical period in which it is extremely hard for one to maintain impartiality, a period in history in which it is increasingly difficult to distinguish between the good and the bad and the innocent and the guilty.’ —Koray Sarıdoğan, Kalem Klavye (journal)

• Death Begins with the Loss of Our Cities…; Are You Going to Be a Killer?; An Idea Whose Time Has Come; Your Decision; Dogs Smelling Blood on a Hunt; The Meaning of This Empire for Us; Confronting Death; The Ancient Wound; The Essence of the State; Becoming the Hunted; Like Two Wistful Flowers; The World’s Greatest Mystery; The Love That Will Never Fade; What Does a Single Individual Matter?; A Game of Revenge; The Motherland Is Lost; The Only Thing Keeping Me Alive; No Intention of Surrendering; A Man’s Word Is His Honour; An Inappropriate Sense of Compassion; A Token of a Conversation; I Am Not the One to Decide; Miracles; The Ability to Forgive Ourselves; Losing One’s Humanity; No Choice But to Fight; Give Me an Honourable Death; The Walking Dead; Save Yourself, Soldier; Wishing for Help from the Dead; Resign, Your Excellency!; A False Sense of Security; The True Power in the Land; Betrothed to Life, Married to Death; When the Wolf Dies in the Forest; This Is Not Ankara; Vultures Circling Over an Old Man; Ignoble Alliances; A Betrayal of Their Own History; Fighting for a Lost Cause; Evil Stalks This Land; A Malevolent Rain; A Fragmented Homeland, a Disintegrating World; Turning Us All into Killers; When I Began Losing My Country; Farewell, My Beautiful Homeland; Glossary.