The stories in SANKOFA make it clear that racism and violence do not only come from certain groups, but are universal phenomena. However, the book invites us to reflect on topics that play a decisive role in our perception and sometimes in our lives.

The novel begins in a small Anatolian border town and ends in the USA. Bridges are built between different places in the world, between violence in the past and the present. When you read it, you don't feel like the story is something that has already been overcome, but rather you feel like you are in the middle of the story - and in the middle of the world. Because: the much-vaunted “culture of remembrance” is not being developed in relation to one country, but transnationally. Each of the four books that make up Sankofa allows us to empathize with a different country, a different time, and a different protagonist. And also understand that neither the role of the perpetrator is permanently cemented nor that of the victim.

A narrative about all of these issues could feel like a moralizing finger-wagging. But it doesn't do that, because SANKOFA doesn't sacrifice the characters to any kind of wisdom, but tells their exciting, rousing, contradictory stories and doesn't give us answers, but lets us ask questions - even if we don't notice it while reading.

In a world that struggles to think beyond its own national or group perspectives, such books are more important than ever.

SANKOFA can now be pre-ordered at a subscription price of 22.50 euros.

From October 1st The book regularly costs 29.80 euros.

Doğan Akhanlı

Translated from Turkish by Recai Hallaç