Suzy Hansen – författare

'A gripping portrait of a crisis-ridden Turkey' PANKAJ MISHRA'A richly textured human history .. elegantly maps out Turkey's hard-right turn' THE NEW YORK TIMES'An ambitious, alive and lovingly written portrait of everyday life' GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE DAY'Hansen writes fluently and colourfully and has a sharp eye for detail' SUNDAY TIMESPulitzer finalist Suzy Hansen chronicles the age of authoritarianism in Turkey - through an intimate portrait of its peopleIn the midst of a world in upheaval, Erdogan has remade Turkey in his own image. Once a shining portal that straddled East and West, Istanbul's streets now teem with nationalistic fervour, political repression and rampant corruption. And it's here, in the old Ottoman neighbourhood of Karagumruk, that Suzy Hansen goes looking for the truth about modern Turkey.Through the lives of its inhabitants, Hansen shows how local conflicts are spiralling into regional crises, deepening the fault lines now fracturing Europe and the Middle East. A dazzling account of a nation on the frontlines of history, From Life Itself chronicles the rise of an autocrat, the resurrection of an empire - and the human stories unfolding in its shadow.'A dizzying tour de force that leaves the reader with a sense of wonder' ELIF BATUMAN

"e;Rich and complex . . . [A] beautifully observant book."e; -Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times Book Review"e;A dizzying tour de force . . . From Life Itself leaves the reader with a sense of wonder."e; -Elif Batuman, author of Either/Or and The IdiotOne neighborhood in Istanbul: a window on a city, country, region, and world in a state of upheaval.Karagumruk, an Istanbul neighborhood once dominated by Ottoman-era homes, is now known for petty thieves, cheap apartment blocks, and an influx of Syrian refugees. It's here that Suzy Hansen went looking for the truth behind the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's authoritarian turn, a catastrophic regional war, and an accelerating geopolitical crisis. She asks: Was Turkey a harbinger of what would soon arise in other countries, the resurgence of authoritarianism? Or do the lives in this neighborhood, and the transformations of Erdogan's Turkey, reveal a more complex story?During a decade spent reporting from Karagumruk, Hansen discovered the neighborhood's secrets and got to know some of its people: Ismail, the longtime muhtar, or neighborhood councilman; Huseyin, a loyalist in Erdogan's Islamic nationalist AK Party; and Ebru, a real estate agent and mother with ambitions to unseat Ismail. Through these local perspectives, Hansen connects the events unfolding in Karagumruk to the forces roiling Turkey, the Middle East, and the world, capturing the sweep of the last ten years in microcosm.From the author of the acclaimed Pulitzer Prize finalist Notes on a Foreign Country, From Life Itself is a story for a world out of joint. An absorbing account of one neighborhood in Istanbul that has seen profound change, it offers lessons for all of us who feel the pressure of the disorienting global forces remaking our lives.

'Deeply honest and brave . . . A sincere and intelligent act of self-questioning . . . Hansen is doing something both rare and necessary' - Hisham Matar, New York TimesIn the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the invasion of Iraq, Suzy Hansen was enjoying success as a journalist for a New York newspaper. Increasingly, though, the disconnect between the chaos of world events and the response at home took on pressing urgency for her. Seeking to understand the Muslim world that had been reduced to scaremongering headlines, she moved to Istanbul.Hansen arrived in Istanbul with romantic ideas about a city perched between East and West, and a naïve sense of the Islamic world beyond. Over the course of years of living in Turkey and traveling in Greece, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Iran, she learned a great deal about these countries and their cultures. But the most unsettling surprise would be what she learned about her own country - and herself, an American abroad in the era of American decline. Blending memoir, journalism, and history, Notes on a Foreign Country is a moving reflection on America's place in the world. It is a powerful journey of self-discovery and revelation - a profound reckoning with what it means to be American in a moment of national and global turmoil.