Part of Series
The journalist Defne Kaman is being prosecuted for her article “Why Not Nuclear Energy?” In Kayseri, where the trial is being held, Defne Kaman is joined by Turkey’s renowned environmental lawyers, journalists, animal and environmental rights activists and NGO representatives. The day Defne Kaman arrives in Kayseri a bust mysteriously disappears from the city center. It is the bust of Gevher Nesibe, a female Seljuk sultan who, in 13th Century Kayseri, built one of the world’s first medical schools, as well as a hospital that treated patients with music. Following a surprise development on the morning of the trial Defne Kaman also vanishes. Her friends then head to Cappadocia, on a tip that the journalist has been spotted on a hot air balloon there. Buket Uzuner’s character, Defne Kaman, the female journalist who defends the position that the natural disasters caused by climate change can be prevented through sustainable clean energy and who is a supporter of animal, children’s, women’s and environmental rights, leaves a mark on literature. The author invites the reader to remember the essence of our thousands of years old ancient Shamanic tradition which regards humans as equal to all other living beings in nature. “Buket Uzuner’s Air is a striking climate-fiction novel that brings back respiration to our biotically off kilter planet.” Serpil Opperman President, EASLCE (European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture and Environment) “ Like an eco-shaman, in her Nature Quartet novels, Buket Uzuner embarks on a journey to reconcile our daily existence with our perception of the world around us, making use of Anatolian culture, mythology and history in the process.” Pinar Batur, Vassar College, USA Ufuk Ozdag, Hacettepe University
Author
Buket Uzuner (born 3 October 1955, Ankara, Turkey) is a Turkish writer, author of novels, short stories and travelogues. Travel Literature She studied biology and environmental science and has conducted research and presented lectures at universities in Turkey, Norway, the United States, and Finland. Her fiction has been translated into eight languages, including Spanish, English, Italian, Greek, Romanian, Hebrew, Korean, and Bulgarian. Buket Uzuner travels as "solo woman backpacker" since 1980s including "inter-rail" tours in Europe and in three other continents while keep writing her travel memoirs. Her first travelogue The Travel Notes of A Brunette was published in 1988 and sold more than 300.000 copies. Uzuner wrote two more travel books as Travel Notes of An Urban Romantic which questions the meaning of exoticism and New York Logbook which are all collected lately in Travel Library of Buket Uzuner In 2013 her novel İstanbullular is published in USA by Dalkey Archive Press with the title of I Am Istanbul translated into English by Kenneth J. Dakan She is also celebrating in 2013 the 22nd year's anniversary of her first novel İki Yeşil Susamuru, Anneleri, Babaları, Sevgilileri ve Diğerleri (Two Green Otters, Mothers, Fathers, Lovers and All the Others) translated by Alex Dawe with its 50th edition which sold over 1 million copies in Turkey and already a contemporary classic. Uzuner's books have been on the Turkish best-seller lists since 1992. They are taught in a number of Turkish universities and high schools.[1][2] In 1993, Buket Uzuner was awarded Turkey's Yunus Nadi prize for the novel The Sound of Fishsteps, and in 1998 Mediterranean Waltz was named novel of the year by the University of Istanbul. She was made an honorary member of the International Writing Program, IWP of University of Iowa in 1996. She was also honored with a certificate of appreciation from the Senate of Middle East Technical University; METU in 2004. She has referred to Turkish poet and novelist Attilâ İlhan, and Cervantes, Dostoyevski, Doris Lessing, Turkish woman writer Sevgi Soysal as major influences on her work.
