L´Alphabet du silence by Delphine Minoui

The ways in which intellectuals react under dictatorships and how power put a strain on freedom of thinking is one of the most important topics I am interested in as a historian of mentalities. Intellectual elites do write everyday cultural stories, once to be part of the national intellectual representations therefore, reading their interpretations and misinterpretations is very important for understanding a country´s psyche.

Delphine Minoui´s L´Alphabet du Silence - in my own free translation, The Alphabet of Silence, or even better, The Unspoken Alphabet - interested me because it deals with a topic not too much discussed in the West - for some unfortunate political and maybe economic reasons too: the state of art of the intellectuals during Erdogan´s long reign. A long reign, as we may remind, corrupts, and Erdogan´s grip on power already has decade-long history. The oppression of journalists and intellectuals, many of them highly educated in British and French universities is a real threat, hence the decision of many Turkish intellectuals to leave their country. A country they love and would dearly miss.

Göktay, the male character of the book, is an university teacher who signed a protest for peace. He is kept in prison, in isolation, without contact with his daugher or wife. The son of a Turkish general killed by a Kurd, he broke the alphabet of silence. His wife, Ayla is going meanwhile through an intellectual transformation. A teacher herself, Sorbonne-graduated, a rebel with strains of purple hair, she will not only start her own curious activist´s journey, but will also inspire change and nuances into the conservative Fatma, a woman who´ve found their cat, with a conservative, pro-Erdogan background.

Besides the intellectual story, this book is also a love story to Istanbul, the city of residence of Minoui as well. Love story for a place where ´le monde entier se donne rendez-vous´, with its rebel spirit, and melting pot of so many different cultures.

I really got caught by the story and the storytelling, unable to abandon the characters and especially Istanbul until the very end. I will continue to read more - in both fictional and nonfictional format - about the nuanced intellectual stories of Turkey, and everywhere else where power is trying to suffocate free spirit. Hint: the experience shows that they will hardly succeed, if ever. 

Rating: 4 stars