Praise for From Life Itself

What Autocracy Feels Like: Hansen elegantly maps out the constellation of forces that brought Turkey to [an] unprecedented moment . . . Rich and complex . . . As [Hansen] shows in this beautifully observant book, the first steps to resisting the easy seductions of cynicism are to look, listen and try to understand.

From Life Itself zooms in on a single Istanbul neighborhood and, in the process, manages to capture the political mood of an entire country. Think of it as geopolitics at street level … For readers interested in geopolitics, this is the kind of book that reminds you that big political shifts rarely feel “big” while you’re living through them. … The result is a portrait of modern Istanbul that doubles as a case study in how democracies can morph under pressure. It’s also a quiet warning: political transformation rarely announces itself with a drumroll.

Fascinating . . . An urgent cautionary tale for American readers . . . Hansen’s deep-rooted reporting has undeniable gravitas . . . A rich portrait of a community—and a country—in the shadow of an increasingly powerful president.

With great sympathy and nuance, Hansen shares the intimate lives of an array of Karagümrük’s denizens, all set against Erdoğan’s systematic dismantling of the courts, the press, opposition parties, election integrity, and any other force that might hinder the country’s appropriation by Erdoğan and his AK Party . . . Lessons abound in this fine case study.

A captivating consideration of Turkey as a truly “post-Western” nation charting its own course in a globalized world.

Book of the Day: As the work of a journalist well acquainted with her adopted country, From Life Itself is lovingly written and well observed … Hansen brilliantly captures the little ways in which local prejudices begin to manifest: the complaints that Syrians smell of cooking oil; that they walk down the street all wrong; that they are a threat to Turkish women. Here it feels the book really gets into the grit of Karagümrük and the nativist politics recognisable far outside it.

A BOOK I STRONGLY RECOMMEND: … a clinic in writing contemporary history through journalism … Hansen skillfully weaves more than 100 years of late-Ottoman-to-Republican-era history into a narrative that contextualizes the cleavages in Turkish society and the various ways Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed them to remold the country in his image. This is the sort of book that made me attentive to how little I actually understood Turkey and Erdogan. The best sort of books have that effect on a reader. Without being overwrought, Hansen very skillfully invites comparisons with America in the era of Trump that land forebodingly. Her craftwork is no less impressive: her story begins with Erdogan’s early construction patronage, and the place her book ends makes it an inspired choice. Don’t miss this book.

Continuously elegant and intellectually conscientious, From Life Itself sets a new standard in literary journalism. Its portrait of a crisis-ridden Turkey is gripping in itself. However, Suzy Hansen is able to diagnose a global unravelling by abandoning the assumptions and expectations of Western journalism that posited a clear division between ‘us’ and ‘them,’ achievers and stragglers. While ostensibly writing about a ‘foreign’ society, she bracingly enables us to understand our own.

The Sufis tell us of two paths to enlightenment: to look inside oneself and find the universe, or to look out at the universe and find oneself. Here Suzy Hansen is doing both. In her intimate examination of one neighborhood of one city of one country that is not her own, she reveals to us the swirling patterns of our entire world.

From Life Itself is a dizzying tour de force: the simultaneously cosmic and microscopic record of a transformative decade in Istanbul, Turkey, and the world. Current events and political analyses are deftly interwoven with, and sometimes subverted by, firsthand accounts of life as it is actually lived. By turns gutting and exhilarating, filled with vitality and humanity, Hansen’s writing defies cynicism, thwarts easy generalizations, and leaves the reader with a sense of wonder.

Kaleidoscopic. Suzy Hansen makes sense of Erdoğan’s rule, showing how the autocrat’s remaking of Turkey is mirrored in the lives of ordinary citizens, but also how global and regional forces have determined the country’s fate. Hansen’s affectionate portrayals of the inhabitants of an Istanbul neighborhood make clear that we shouldn’t write Turkey and its democratic prospects off.

From Life Itself is an engrossing, illuminating account of modern Turkey told through the prism of an Istanbul neighborhood and the lives that animate it. In deeply researched, engaging prose, Hansen interlaces the district’s changing fortunes with Turkey’s national metamorphosis and the rise of Erdoğan. A sweeping, intimate, and authoritative portrait of a crucial state at the crossroads of Europe and the Middle East.

In From Life Itself, Suzy Hansen does something extraordinary: she plants herself in a single Istanbul neighborhood for a decade and watches democracy unravel—this is journalism at its most courageous and intimate. The frontline of history is right outside your door—this book shows you how to see it.

Suzy Hansen’s From Life Itself is the most startlingly vivid portrait of the rise of authoritarianism I have read, combining geopolitical, cultural, and economic analysis alongside sharp local reporting. She masterfully tells a complex story with clarity and force, leaving us with questions not only about Turkey, but about the fate of global democracy. A superb and tremendously compelling book.

No modern history of Turkey, told through the complex lives and perspectives of its inhabitants, could be more compelling than Suzy Hansen’s. In it, she traces not only a nation in all of its specificity, but also the essential elements of the rise of autocracy.

To read From Life Itself is to walk through walls and step into a sacred place, immersing in the longings, memories and fractures of people you will never forget. Through one Istanbul neighborhood, Suzy Hansen tells some of the biggest stories of our time—about global migration, authoritarian rule and the collapse of national identity. The result is a rare gift—a spellbinding work of narrative nonfiction that is masterfully reported, deeply felt, lyrically written and urgently relevant.