mediterranean waltz

Synopsis MEDITERRANEAN WALTZ

Buket Uzuner - Kumral Ada Mavi Tuna

#1 National best seller novel by BUKET UZUNER It is the late 1990's in Istanbul. Duna, an Istanbulian high school teacher is suddenly taken by two soldiers from his home as civil war has erupted. The country is being mobilized. Duna is not in the least surprised; he had had a premonition of the coming struggle. But what does surprise him are the headlines in the newspapers about Ada, a woman he passionately loved, who has just been accused of murder. Duna is taken by a military truck that early morning to the army headquarters while his mother thinks he was taken by an ambulance to a mental institution. Despite all the bloodshed around him, Duna keeps telling us that what is happening to him is just a nightmare. His Kafkaesque imaginings and reality come together in a labyrinth as Duna tries to escape into the memories of his Ottoman-Turkish youth. He goes with the army to an unknown place where the civil war is going on. Wherever Duna goes he keeps meeting childhood friends from his neighborhood of Kuzguncuk, a small village by the Bosphorus known for its rich mix of Jewish, Armenian,and Greek minorities and the Muslim community. The story explores the parallel between the civil war and wars inside a participants's mind,and their painful similarities. In the middle of war, Duna, a pacifist, recalls his youth and his unrequited love for Ada, the girl who loved his brother, Aras. This classical impossible love triangle is shattered by a mysterious accident in which Aras dies leaving some question marks behind. Duna's desperate love towards Ada turns into an obsession for her during his civil war journey. The tale questions the delicate details of love-sex and desire-passion through a romantic triangle. Finally the unidentified war ends and Duna realizes one must first know how to combat one's interior wars. He returns to Kuzguncuk, Istanbul, a stronger, more confident individual. He is strong enough now not to care what anyone thinks. What he really cares about is knowing what he wants to do in life. The story highlights the ethnic and political games played on individuals and displays them in turn through the eyes of the educated elite, the common man, and the military. Mediterranean Waltz Mediterranean Waltz is the national #1 bestselling novel of Buket Uzuner who is one of the most prominent and acclaimed writers of contemporary Turkish Literature, has been translated into four languages and won The Novel Prize of Istanbul University in 1998. translated by Pelin Ariner Thornhill now is available by Remzi Publishing .Co.at www.remzi.com.tr "You will be thrilled, when you read Mediterranean Waltz" Nilüfer Kuyash -Milliyet Daily " It is a literary feast by Buket Uzuner" Prof. Gursel Aytach " It is the very first novel in Turkish Literature written by a woman writer and deals with a civil war. It seems that Mediterranean Waltz will make an outstanding impact in our political and literarary circles." Cumhuriyet Book