3 books
Nermin Bezmen is a Turkish novelist and visual artist whose research into family history led to Kurt Seyt and Shura. The novel transforms the life of her maternal grandfather into a historical family narrative that moves from Imperial Russia and wartime upheaval toward exile and a new life in Istanbul. Translated by Feyza Howell, the English edition gives readers direct access to the book that established Bezmen’s literary reputation. Her wider career also includes painting, printmaking, restoration, broadcasting, poetry, short fiction, and other novels, but Kurt Seyt and Shura remains the clearest meeting point between archival curiosity and storytelling. Begin there to follow how private memory is placed against large political change without losing the characters’ intimate choices. The novel also reveals why family research became a durable source for Bezmen’s fiction rather than background information alone.
