“That Soysal’s work is often categorized as Turkish coup literature sometimes detracts from the breadth of her literary creativity and unapologetic feminism . . . Dawn is daringly explicit about the tribulations of the female body, from accounts of sexual assault in prison to the shame women feel about menstruation . . . Freely’s translation is clean, colloquial and confident.” — Ayten Tartici, The New York Times
“The fluid shifts in points of view underscore the precariousness of the characters’ lives during a tumultuous and violent period following a recent coup . . . [Dawn] powerfully underscores how the threat of violence drives all the characters into suspicion and paranoia. This story of persecution convinces with its urgency and humanity.” — Publishers Weekly
“Dawn proposes that any account of a revolutionary period of history, such as the post-coup chaos of 1970s Turkey, requires equally revolutionary artistic methods . . . Dawn’s streams of consciousness are strikingly fluid, one mind’s thoughts bleeding into the next . . . Freely’s translation of Dawn marks a new chapter for Turkish literature in the (English-speaking) world.” — Shaj Mathew, The Nation
“With the unflinching eye of a journalist and the sensitivities of a novelist, Soysal reveals one night of horror threaded with moments of possibility and human connection. Maureen Freely’s translation brings Soysal’s riveting words to a wider audience, one courageous woman’s story, a necessary story for our whole fragile world.” — Patty Dann, author of Mermaids and The Wright Sister
With a clarity and courage rooted in her own experiences as a political prisoner, Sevgi Soysal unflinchingly exposed the suffering and defiance of women in 1970s Turkey, and more broadly the conflicts inherent in personal and political loyalties which continue to resound in our time. A brutal but ultimately rewarding novel, and a timely and typically sensitive translation by Maureen Freely. — Alev Scott, author of Ottoman Odyssey
“Instead of making the pain epic, making love unrealistic, and making the revolution utopian, [Sevgi Soysal] caressed the pain with compassion . . . and made the revolution stubbornly vital.” — Can Gürses
“[Soysal’s] writings, full of courage, malice, disobedience and irony, do not so much reflect an existing feminist movement on the streets . . . as forge a new voice, inquiring into the power of capital and men, while keeping in mind the tempestuous and fickle nature of human relationships, with their power to subvert, inflame and destroy . . . Defiant, flawed, piercing. Reading . . . Soysal today restores the volatility and violence of female concerns, and expands our horizons of understanding how inequality operates.” — Helen Mackreath, The White Review
“Startling reflections on beauty and freedom are woven throughout [Dawn]. An exciting translation of a feminist novel that renders a nuanced picture of the conflicting ideologies of 1970s Turkey.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Dawn integrates all of Soysal’s signature techniques and preoccupations . . . Maureen Freely skillfully registers the tones of disquiet and grief that empower Soysal’s sentences . . . Ultimately, and without Soysal having to spell it out, it is clear that each individual’s turmoil results from the anguish caused by the unforgiving powers of the state.” — Ron Slate, On the Seawall
“Visceral and cinematic . . . The novel situates the woman’s body in its confrontations with authority. The brilliance of the novel might be traced to the formal structure through which the author reflects on this confrontation . . . Soysal’s writing is captivating, reflective, and thrilling . . . Dawn is a classic that readers interested in feminist world literature will devour.” — Irmak Ertuna Howison, Asymptote
“Soysal does not disguise which side she is on – that of the downtrodden, the workers, the women, those opposed to the military government and its martial law. We see her own story through Oya but also the stories of the others, some enthusiastic opponents of the government and others just trying to make a living, honest or otherwise.” — The Modern Novel
“By Dawn’s end you may well feel you, too, have spent a night in the cells with [Soysal’s characters] and developed that accidental comradeship. In one way or another, their lives will have touched you and, whatever hope you have left, you will hope for them. An important addition to the literature of oppression, Dawn will resonate with the experience of many even fifty years later.” — Grant Rintoul, 1st Reading
“First published in 1975, Dawn is freshly and sublimely translated by Maureen Freely . . . a gutting masterpiece . . . The powerful believe in cruelty, in violence . . . But Oya, and Soysal, have a different faith. They actually believe the world can be better. Soysal gave her life to this belief, and Dawn, which ends on a hopeful note, illuminates a path. We’re not there, not even close. But nor are we completely broken.” — Brian O’Neill, Necessary Fiction
“Empowered by Soysal’s understated ironic voice, Dawn reveals the dangerous absurdity of unchecked power and the infinite strategies people have for surviving or justifying their survival in such conditions . . . Soysal’s characters, so human and fallible, remind us of ourselves . . . Sevgi Soysal has written a powerful, nuanced novel of resistance.” — Joon-Li Kim, On the Seawall
“While the book nominally takes place over the course of about 12 sleepless hours, much like the masterful film Once Upon a Time in Anatolia that is an obvious homage to the novel, most of the prose is about the inner lives and troubled pasts of Mustafa and Oya as well as some of the security officials tasked with needlessly persecuting them. Dawn is a story about authority and the status quo . . . a beautiful, moving work of fiction.” — Ryne Clos, Spectrum Culture
“It took feminist, novelist, journalist, university professor and translator Maureen Freely more than 40 years to find a home for Soysal’s wonderful novel Dawn, in the English language. Just like Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Soysal’s novel is set in just one day . . . Maureen Freely’s translation is not only sensitive, confident and beautiful; Dawn is a conversation between two novelists.” – Lacuna Magazine
“Soysal’s various levels of interrogation probe at the painful spaces of subjectification which emerge in the interstices of power – always partial, provisional and emerging within very specific relationships. But while sensitive to the neurosis inflicted by society on individuals, she doesn’t let anybody, least of all herself, off the hook.” – Helen Mackreath, K24
“Soysal creates a panoramic view of the remote southern shantytown Adana in Dawn, sweeping in and out of her characters’ lives with passion. From ferris wheels to coffee houses to cold hotels, Soysal’s spare prose leaps with electricity.” — Grace Byron, The Reservoir
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