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Dedicated to his father, Mevlüt, who made and sold his own brand of flavored soda or “Peri Gazozu” in a village in Anatolia, Fairy Chimney Soda is a collection of short stories by Turkish author, screenplay writer and actor, Ercan Kesal. He is clear-eyed as he mines his memories of childhood and his early years as a doctor fulfilling his mandatory civil service in the remote villages of Anatolia. He explores the wonder and terror of childhood, the hardship of living through the turbulent years in the lead-up to the 1980 military coup and the anguish, insight and resolution that comes with death and dying. [NP] These are cautionary tales unveiling hard truths, unsettling in their quick, dramatic shifts in mood, at times bleak and buckling under a philosophical pressure, at other times warm and uplifting, always rich with human wisdom. Matching with his presence on the silver screen, Kesal is a brave and bighearted writer: radical, self-questioning and perceptive
Ercan Kesal graduated from medical school at Ege University in 1984 and served as a doctor at health clinics across Turkey for many years. After he began his own practice he studied social anthropology and applied psychology. Kesal’s first poetry and prose were published in the journal Dönem when he was studying medicine in Izmir. During his mandatory civil service as a doctor, he gave interviews and wrote articles for the journal Son Reçete. After settling in Istanbul in 1990, Kesal became one of the founders of Era Publishing. With a role in the film Uzak he began his career in cinema and acted in several other films while continuing to write screenplays.
Alexander Dawe has translated several contemporary Turkish novels as well as classics of the twentieth century. He lives and works on one of the Princes’ Islands in Istanbul.
Kurban; I Am an Orphan, Press Me to Your Chest; What Has That Got to Do With It, Dad!; I Am Grown Up, Dad; The Weight of Your Coat; “We’ll Ask Someone for Our Name, and She’ll Tell Us.”; The Seal; Whose Blood Is on That Photo?; The Scent of Blood or Bread; What’s Left for Us; A Drop of Water; Just Let Go; Turkey at the End of Its Rope; Our Hearts in the Palms of Our Hands; The Burnt Smell Inside Us; The Quilt; Where Are Our Dead?; Mothers Sniff Out Their Lambs; Words Have Spirits; Three Kinds of Truth and Us; The Country Doctor; The File Under My Arm; Country of the Forgotten Dead; The Coming of the Fiancée; The Lie; Why These Scars?; The Municipality Man Who Drew a Gun; Tell My Friends, I Learned How to Die; God Willing He’s Dead; Come Along, Let’s Start Off by Saving Ourselves; A Whistle Out of Chestnut.