Ece Temelkuran, a Turkish writer and activist, has gained recognition for her political nonfiction, including her English-language debut, How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship. After leaving Turkey due to threats from President Erdoğan’s authoritarian regime, she published Nation of Strangers: Building Home in the 21st Century, reflecting on her experience of feeling “unhomed.”
In her works, Temelkuran challenges the romanticism of “exile,” arguing that loss of home can happen even in familiar places, referencing global political shifts like those in Trump’s America. Her book is structured as letters to the reader, emphasizing the need for dialogue and the power of kindness among strangers. She critiques the reluctance of many to name current political actions as fascism, urging recognition of the urgency to tackle these issues.
Temelkuran sees home as increasingly tied to people rather than places, and her transition to writing in English has been both a challenge and a necessity for her identity as a writer. She stresses the importance of beauty and creativity in maintaining humanity amid struggles for survival, contrasting this with the neoliberal view of humanity as self-serving. Her narrative calls for a moral revolution to navigate the complexities of modern existence.
