With Abdullah Aren Çelik on While Nobody is Waiting and the Crisis of Trust
An interview conducted by Ümran Avcı with author Abdullah Aren Çelik examines recent historical traumas and the social crisis of trust through his latest novel.
Author Abdullah Aren Çelik's latest novel "While Nobody is Waiting" sheds light on the dark periods of recent history, the perception of the state, and the crisis of trust experienced by individuals.
The Pursuit of Journalist Derin Dereli
Abdullah Aren Çelik's latest novel "While Nobody is Waiting" tells the story of unwavering journalist Derin Dereli, whose life changes drastically with a news report exposing the arms of the deep state. The journalist, whose house is ransacked on the day she loses her mother, sets out for a historical mansion in another city by tracking an old postcard found among her mother's belongings.
The Perception of the State as Father and Justice
Author Çelik states that he does not leave the lack of a father in the novel as a purely individual deficiency, but rather connects it to the social fabric through the concept of the "state as father". Finding the expression "state as father" in Turkey problematic, the author emphasizes that the state is a governing apparatus where justice, equality, and laws should be at the center.
September 12 Traumas and the Crisis of Trust
The novel focuses on the executioners of the September 12 era taking their place in daily life years later as "doddery old men" and the psychology of the victims. Çelik expresses that past periods of violence destroyed the initial sense of trust and that the work places the question "Who will we trust?" at its center.
The Statue of Terror and the Monument of Shame
The "statue of terror", which forms the backbone of the book and exceeds two meters in height, symbolizes the fragmentation of the country's memory and intellectual world through the character Reşat Özbay. In the novel, this structure carries the quality of a monument of shame.