TEHRAN – A Persian translation of Turkish author Ahmet Altan’s “Dying is Easier than Loving” has recently been published by Now Publications in Tehran. 

The book has been translated into Persian by Alireza Seifeddini.

In this story, a car stopped in front of the casino, Nizam rushed out of the car, ran into the casino, there was no piano sound, it was very quiet, dormant to the next room, the door of the piano was closed, he scanned the hall with his eyes, Anya was by the window, smoking. 

He saw a trace of astonishment for the first time. Nizam went and stopped in front of the woman and asked, What’s your name?, You have learned my name.”

Altan ranks among Turkey’s most-read novelists as well as its most influential political columnists. It is a role into which he was born. His father, Çetin Altan was an important novelist and popular journalist as well as a politician.

Ahmet’s younger brother Mehmet, a professor of economics, is also a household name in Turkey for his political commentaries. Ahmet graduated from the School of Economics of Istanbul University. In the decades that followed, he worked his way around newspapers from the night shift to the head of the foreign desk to managing editor, to nationwide prominence.

It is as an op-ed writer that he commanded national attention. No taboo has proved too sacred to deflect his direct style and crystal-clear prose. 

In 2009, Altan was awarded the Prize for the Freedom and Future of the Media by the Media Foundation of the Sparkasse Leipzig. 

In 2011, he received the International Hrant Dink Award. The Turkish Publishers Association awarded its 2013 Freedom of Thought and Expression Prize to Ahmet, and the Istanbul Human Rights Association Freedom of Thought and Expression Prize was given to him in 2017, albeit in absentia while in prison.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian translation of Ahmet Altan’s “Dying is Easier than Loving”.

RM/MMS/YAW