Curfew

Curfew is set in Turkey on a June evening in 1980, a time of revolutionary conflict, military coups, martial law, and curfew. Seven people -- lovers, friends, relatives -- are gathered in different parts of Turkey: Ankara, Istanbul, and the Anatolian town of Eskisehir. Throughout the evening, the characters play out their shared history, their disagreements, and their hopes.Before the curfew begins, the seven characters must make critical personal decisions, despite the atmosphere of...
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Curfew is set in Turkey on a June evening in 1980, a time of revolutionary conflict, military coups, martial law, and curfew. Seven people -- lovers, friends, relatives -- are gathered in different parts of Turkey: Ankara, Istanbul, and the Anatolian town of Eskisehir. Throughout the evening, the characters play out their shared history, their disagreements, and their hopes.Before the curfew begins, the seven characters must make critical personal decisions, despite the atmosphere of fear and suspicion that surrounds them. On a larger scale, these decisions reveal the dilemmas faced in modern Turkey not only by individual citizens but also by the nation of Turkey itself.The personal focus widens, as the author uses the conversations of the seven characters with each other, as well as their inner thoughts, to reveal the past and to fantasize about the future. This interweaving of inner and outer thoughts creates a complex web of consciousness. The reader comes to see the characters as whole people struggling with crucial issues in their lives and also gains fascinating psychological and political insights into century Turkey, caught between the twentieth old Ottoman past and an uncertain westward-oriented future.