Yolun Açık Olsun

Hakan Evrensel, who wrote the first works of literature about the fight against terrorism in the Southeast and, with his screenplays, created the first works of the genre for film and television, offers another striking piece of writing with “Yolun Açık Olsun”.

At a time when television series and films depicting the conflict in the Southeast are multiplying, “Yolun Açık Olsun” sets out to let Turkish readers see what happened in the Southeast from an entirely different angle.

Breaking new ground once more out of an intellectual's sense of responsibility, the author, who has already given our literature a work that overturned received ideas about the Southeast, now sheds light on a side of what happened there that people would rather not know about and that has been covered up: post-traumatic stress disorder.

In his books he treats sacred notions such as heroism, sacrifice and patriotism without rhetoric and without playing on emotion. Between the lines he hides human feelings such as friendship, love, deep grief, regret and remorse, told once again in a strikingly realistic style, with a cinematic structure and a bitter humour that leaves a taste of rust in the mouth.

“Yolun Açık Olsun” shakes its readers with a dilemma that makes them regret having laughed, and tosses them between walls of emotion.

Captain Salih lost a leg in his last firefight; Second Lieutenant Kerim was wounded in the same clash. Their lives, which crossed as each of them faced death, turn into a friendship beyond words on a journey from Ankara to Dalyan, the holiday paradise of Muğla.