English Releases

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Available in Armenian, Turkish, Greek, Serbian and Norwegian

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Praise for Defne’s latest releases

Suman’s tale is at its heart about those small people living their daily lives within the city, loving each other and loving the land beneath them.
—Laurel Taylor, Asymptote
(on The Silence of Scheherazade)
It is very easy for Greek readers to love Suman, to identify with her heroes, to look for their own ancestral memories among the memories of her heroes. But the most important thing about a novel is that it hides a beautiful story, and the author knows how to tell it.
—Erika Athanasiou
(on At the Breakfast Table)
When Smyrna was reduced to ashes in September 1922, the world lost one of its most beautifully cosmopolitan cities. [It is] brought back to life in all its glory in this rich tale of love and loss, giving voice to the silenced, and music to their histories.
—Maureen Freely, chair of PEN, UK
(on The Silence of Scheherazade)
Defne Suman brings lightness to the hearts of her readers as the characters of At the Breakfast Table reclaim their identity and freedom from the burden of family secrets and the false pretense of living as if no sin has been committed in this land.
—Yaprak Cetinkaya, Pozitif Magazine
(on At the Breakfast Table)
I am honored to be a part of the publication of Defne’s book, which portrays the bonds of humanity and love between faiths, nations, ethnic minorities, in English.
—Betsy Göksel, translator
(on The Silence of Scheherazade)
Suman listens and understands a wounded geography with an open heart—a trait that is rarely found among Turkish intellectuals. She challenges the common belief and narrates beautifully.
—Derya Beyatli, Yeni Duzen Newspaper
(on At the Breakfast Table)

About the translator

Betsy Göksel was born in a small town in South Carolina in 1940. After graduating from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, by chance she began teaching English at The American College for Girls in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1962. She married a Turkish engineer and continued teaching English at the school, which merged with Robert College in 1971, for the next 35 years, while raising three daughters. In 1997 she returned to her native country to oversee the birth of her grandchildren, the passing of her parents’ generation, then returned to her adopted homeland in 2008. She lives now on the Aegean island of Bozcaada with her dogs and spends her days translating fiction from Turkish to English, writing, reading, and walking with the dogs over the shores, dunes and fields of the island. Her translations include The Hate Trap by Haluk Şahin as well as several books on art and architecture for the Istanbul Municipality.

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