Lojman, a novel by Ebru Ojen, co-translated from the Turkish by Writing alumna Selin Gökçesu ’15 and translator Aron Aji, has been published by City Lights.
A fictional account of a Kurdish family residing in Turkey’s Van province, Lojman (which means “teacher’s lodging” in Turkish) deals primarily with issues surrounding domesticity, governmental repression, displacement, and familial strife.
The eponymous ‘Lojman’ houses a woman named Selma and her family after they have been exiled by the Turkish government. Selma, whose husband has abandoned the family, gives birth to her third child amid a tumultuous snowstorm. The snowstorm and the childbirth confine her to the lojman, instilling in her a profound sense of claustrophobia.
Lojman is written in short chapters and is Ebru Ojen’s first work to be translated into English.
“Vivid daydreams morph with cold realities, and as the family’s descent reaches its nadir, their world is transformed into a surreal, gelatinous prison from which there is no escape,” reads the jacket copy.
Aron Aji, a native of Turkey, is the Director of Translation at the University of Iowa and has translated numerous contemporary Turkish works. Between 2016 and 2019, he was the president of The American Literary Translators Association.
Selin Gökçesu received a PhD in psychology and cognitive science from The University of Indiana Bloomington and an MFA in Nonfiction from Columbia University. She currently resides in Brooklyn.
