From Life Itself

Ambitious, well observed and lovingly written .. Hansen traces a story that illuminates a politics of mass migration and nationalist backlash that has resonances far beyond Turkey … Where the book really comes alive is when history catches up to Hansen’s own time … [she] brilliantly captures Istanbul’s light, it’s pink and gold splendour [and] the little ways in which local prejudices begin to manifest – SAMI KENT, Book of the Day * GUARDIAN *
Hansen offers a window into the Turkey [Erdogan] has created. Few books in English have captured its texture better than this one * ECONOMIST *
A dizzying tour de force: the simultaneously cosmic and microscopic record of a transformative decade in Istanbul, Turkey, and the world. Current events and political analyses are deftly interwoven with, and sometimes subverted by, firsthand accounts of life as it is actually lived. By turns gutting and exhilarating, filled with vitality and humanity, Hansen’s writing defies cynicism, thwarts easy generalizations, and leaves the reader with a sense of wonder – ELIF BATUMAN, author of THE IDIOT
A beautifully observant book … rich and complex … Hansen elegantly maps out the constellation of forces that brought Turkey to a hard-right turn – JENNIFER SZALAI * NEW YORK TIMES *
Hansen brings modern-day Turkey [and] Erdogan’s rule to life, through the eyes of one Istanbul neighbourhood … The narrative really soars when the author wanders the streets of Karagumruk and speaks to those who live there … chosen as a prism through which to chart Turkey’s descent from democracy to authoritarianism * SUNDAY TIMES *
Continuously elegant and intellectually conscientious, From Life Itself sets a new standard in literary journalism. Its portrait of a crisis-ridden Turkey is gripping in itself. However, Suzy Hansen is able to diagnose a global unravelling by abandoning the assumptions and expectations of Western journalism that posited a clear division between ‘us’ and ‘them,’ achievers and stragglers. While ostensibly writing about a ‘foreign’ society, she bracingly enables us to understand our own – PANKAJ MISHRA, author of THE WORLD AFTER GAZA and BLAND FANATICS
The fruit of a half-decade of reporting, From Life Itself allows Turks to speak for themselves …. Thoughtful [and] convincing … Suzy Hansen amply demonstrates that the system is rigged in Turkey – Kaya Genc * LITERARY REVIEW *
A portrait of the Erdogan era in Turkey told through the lens of one Istanbul neighbourhood. Hansen’s eye for characters and detail brings a rich literary quality to her writing, and her deep knowledge of the country, where she lived for a decade, gives her a perspective that few outsiders can match. As Turkey’s descent into autocracy quickens, this is a timely and vital reminder of the impact on the people living through it – HANNAH LUCINDA SMITH, author of HINTERLANDS - Summer Reads * ENGELSBERG IDEAS *
The Sufis tell us of two paths to enlightenment: to look inside oneself and find the universe, or to look out at the universe and find oneself. Here Hansen is doing both: in her intimate examination of one neighbourhood of one city of one country that is not her own, she reveals to us the swirling patterns of our entire world – MOHSIN HAMID, author of EXIT WEST
Absolutely fascinating – Hugo Rifkind * TIMES RADIO *
Struggling to make sense of the sweeping changes that have transformed Turkey in the past decade under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan - a frenzy of construction, war in the Kurdish region, an influx of refugees and, especially, a sharp autocratic turn - Hansen, who has long lived in the country, homes in on residents in a single Istanbul neighbourhood to create a richly textured human history – 29 New Books to Read in April * NEW YORK TIMES *
In From Life Itself, Suzy Hansen does something extraordinary: she plants herself in a single Istanbul neighbourhood for a decade and watches democracy unravel-this is journalism at its most courageous and intimate. The frontline of history is right outside your door-this book shows you how to see it. – MARIA RESSA, Nobel Peace Prize–winning journalist
No modern history of Turkey, told through the complex lives and perspectives of its inhabitants, could be more compelling than Suzy Hansen’s. In it, she traces not only a nation in all of its specificity, but also the essential elements of the rise of autocracy – ELIZA GRISWOLD, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of CIRCLE OF HOPE
While profiling colorful local characters who serve as a window into what dramatic global change does to individual lives and perspectives, Hansen cleverly considers whether … [Turkey has] already borne witness to a ‘dissolution of nations and borders and people and seemingly civilization itself’ that the West is now grappling with … A captivating consideration of Turkey as a truly ‘post-Western’ nation charting its own course in a globalized world – PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fascinating on its own merits, From Life Itself is also an urgent cautionary tale for American readers … Hansen’s expansive conversations with shopkeepers, tradespeople, and local officials reveal a city on edge about immigration, corruption, and other familiar issues … Hansen methodically chronicles [Erdogan’s] consolidation of power, the effect of which is chillingly apparent after massive 2023 earthquakes … Hansen’s deep-rooted reporting has undeniable gravitas … A rich portrait of a community-and a country-in the shadow of an increasingly powerful president – KIRKUS REVIEWS
An engrossing, illuminating account of modern Turkey told through the prism of an Istanbul neighbourhood and the lives that animate it. In deeply researched, engaging prose, Hansen interlaces the district’s changing fortunes with Turkey’s national metamorphosis and the rise of Erdogan. A sweeping, intimate, and authoritative portrait of a crucial state at the crossroads of Europe and the Middle East – RANIA ABOUZEID, author of NO TURNING BACK
A thoughtful analysis of the Erdogan regime, viewed through the evolving history of a neighbourhood in Istanbul * MORNING STAR *
Kaleidoscopic. Suzy Hansen makes sense of Erdogan’s rule, showing how the autocrat’s remaking of Turkey is mirrored in the lives of ordinary citizens, but also how global and regional forces have determined the country’s fate. Hansen’s affectionate portrayals of the inhabitants of an Istanbul neighborhood make clear that we shouldn’t write Turkey and its democratic prospects off – HALIL KARAVELI, author of WHY TURKEY IS AUTHORITARIAN
Suzy Hansen’s From Life Itself is the most startlingly vivid portrait of the rise of authoritarianism I have read, combining geopolitical, cultural, and economic analysis alongside sharp local reporting. She masterfully tells a complex story with clarity and force, leaving us with questions not only about Turkey, but about the fate of global democracy. A superb and tremendously compelling book – PHIL KLAY, National Book Award–winning author of UNCERTAIN GROUND
Zooms in on a single Istanbul neighbourhood and, in the process, manages to capture the political mood of an entire country … reminding us that big political shifts rarely feel “big” while you’re living through them, [and of] a dynamic anyone watching global politics will recognize - maybe even in your own backyard. The result is a portrait of modern Istanbul that doubles as a study in how democracies can morph under pressure, and, a quiet warning: that political transformation rarely announces itself with a drumroll – IAN BREMMER
Hansen’s book is a way of understanding modern Istanbul and modern Turkey … the sometimes harmonious, sometimes competing desires of its myriad people – Faisal Al Yafai * NEW LINES MAGAZINE *
Fascinating. Hansen tracks the demise of democracy in Turkey from one particular part of a place she’s spent so much of her life … A really terrific overview of the sociology plus the broader strategy of a country – Global Roaming * ABC AUSTRALIA *

Suzy Hansen lived for more than a decade in Istanbul, where she was a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. She has written for publications including the New Yorker, Observer, London Review of Books, and New York Review of Books, among many others.

Her first book, Notes on a Foreign Country, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction and the winner of the Overseas Press Club of America’s Cornelius Ryan Award.

She has taught writing at Princeton University, New York University, and Bard College. She lives in New York.

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