Time Stains

Back Cover Text (From the Promotional Bulletin)

“Witnessing is an unnamed captivity, being trapped in the memory of what has passed away.”

25 July 1943… Çukurova Express sets off for the two-day Adana-Istanbul expedition. We are in wagon number 11, which carries many people and stories, from those who ran away because of honor or forbidden love to soldiers, civil servants, musicians, prisoners, conductors, and listens to all these stories with great curiosity. The narrator is this curious wagon itself.
From the mouth of wagon number 11, we hear what he witnessed for two days and the story of the construction of the Baghdad railway from the beginning of 1900, when he first went on a trip, and the collapse of an empire and the construction of a new state until 1943.
Time Stains is a gripping history of the country and human scenes from the pen of Ömer F. Oyal…

TASTE
“Bedriye looks at the station, whose lights are not on due to the blackout, only weak blue lights coming from inside. . Some of the lamps on the poles are not burning anyway, and the ones that are burning look sickly. The small station is already lifeless. Lifelessness increases the dullness of the blue and the distance of the stars. There are only a few passengers waiting. They also rush to the third-class carriages. Even the sellers are not very hopeful. Their voices come out slowly, as if imaginary bombers in the sky could hear them. Despite all this, a feeling of cleanliness and relief prevails. Yes, there is clarity in the air. Bedriye smokes, it is strange for a woman to smoke in public, the conductor looks at it, for example, the vendors and passengers look at it. Bedriye takes another breath, ignoring him. He probably thinks he's already crossed the threshold for any consideration. He thinks Istanbul is approaching. He thinks that a new life is approaching with all its gloom. He thinks about what the new life will be like. Of course, there is no such thing as a new life. Instead, there's this fucking circle-like, jar-like thing called personality. There is such a thing as always making the same mistakes, the impossibility of the same truths, and stumbling over the same obstacles.”

Editor: Filiz Özdem

Dough Type: 2. Dough

Number of Pages: 324

Size: 13.5 x 21

First Print Year: 2018

Number of Prints: 1. Printing