Ayşe Kulin’s latest work, Aylardan Kasım, Günlerden Perşembe (The Month is November, the Day is Thursday, Everest Yayınları), takes a deeply personal approach to Türkiye’s founding leader. A piece of biographical fiction, the book attempts to shift the focus away from the well-known public persona of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to explore his private, inner world. Kulin blends her empathetic prose with historical research to create a multi-faceted portrayal: “I combined the love of Atatürk in my heart with the knowledge I accumulated through reading so many sources about him. I wanted my readers to encounter the inner life of a man who has been a friend, lover, husband, divorcee, and ultimately, a sick and lonely man—not just Atatürk the Good Soldier and Founding Father.”
This nuanced perspective on leadership and humanity reflects Kulin’s own intellectual foundation. Addressing the RC graduating class in 2012, she had fondly recalled the core values she gained from her alma mater: “We blended the selfconfidence of the West with the inner discipline of the East, and we gained insight. A self-confidence that doesn’t overwhelm others, an awareness devoid of arrogance!” It is precisely this balanced insight and lack of arrogance that Kulin now brings to her literary portrait of Atatürk, seeing beyond the myth to honor the man.
