Book Review: EVERY FIRE YOU TEND by Sema Kaygusuz

Every Fire You Tend by Sema Kaygusuz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Burn me, I asked, that I may be unrecognizable by my ashes. Accustom me to not understanding, that I might not move heaven and earth in order to know. Purge me of my languor, that I might be scorched to purity. Don't let me become the zealot of someone else's faith."

To write of things the leaders of one's country would rather pretend never happened... to tell the stories of state-sponsored massacres and genocides. This is a very noble task that Turkey's women writers are doing with their historical fiction, but paying the price for their bravery in real life. Elif Shafak faced persecution from the courts with her literary depiction of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, and now we have Sema Kaygusuz's book filled with "suskunluk," grief-filled silence wrought by survivor guilt from the 1938 Dersim Massacre.

Again we have another important title from Tilted Axis Press, fast becoming a favorite publisher for its books chosen for literary worth, not marketability. They translate writers into English, thus introducing thousands to hidden histories. And yet they ring of universal truth to anyone living in a democracy under fire, where an imagined unity is enforced at the price of silencing a plurality of voices.

We are introduced to the great Turkish festival known as Hidirellez, held mostly in honor of Hızır, he who has drunk the waters bestowing immortal life and travels the world, guiding Alexander the Great and Elijah, witnessing man's destruction of his fellows while others jump through flame as part of the great spring celebration.

"To tell a story is to fashion a shape out of time... this thing called legend isn't just the backbone of narrative keeping this community's spirit alive; it was his only solace in this infernal world, an inner shrine that allowed him to turn his back on the inhumanity of everything else."

This is a deeply moving and astonishingly beautiful book, which makes us reflect on the stories that we DON'T hear about on Tiktok or your favorite podcast. Kaygusuz makes us think past the temptation towards pettiness and shallow material obsession on mainstream media, towards the voices of people in the margins. Whose stories aren't we hearing about, and who would have it so? We must remind each other to keep asking, and keep listening.


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