From a French mother and an Iranian father, Delphine Minoui was born in Paris. A specialist in the Middle East, where she has lived for 25 years, she received the Albert Londres Prize in 2006 for her reports in Iran and Iraq. After several stories including ” Me, Nojoud, 10 years old, divorced » (Michel Lafon, 2009), « I am writing to you from Tehran » (Threshold, 2014) and « The Daraya book smugglers, a secret library in Syria “(Seuil, 2017), she publishes her first novel ” The alphabet of silence “.
“A couple in turmoil Göktay is a history professor at the prestigious Bosphorus University, a lifelong activist in favor of the oppressed, minorities, the forgotten. One morning in January 2016, he was arrested at his home in Istanbul, then imprisoned , for “supporting terrorism”. His offence: having signed the “petition of academics for peace” demanding an end to the military operations of the Turkish army in the Kurdish-majority southeast. Suddenly, his life changes. of his family too. Victim of the authoritarian drift of President Erdogan, he plunges into absurdity to the point of losing hope. His wife, Ayla, has no choice but to fight, at least for their daughter, Deniz, who At first reluctant to any form of commitment, this French teacher discovers the solidarity of the opponents and ends up espousing their cause, until taking up the torch from her husband, whose secret she finally discovers. A novel inhabited by History In this first novel, Delphine Minoui recounts the authoritarian drift of President Erdogan. With it, we dive into the meanders of Turkish civil society, we gradually measure how politics penetrates to the depths of each individual to better destroy it. Or reveal it. A committed book on resilience, the fight with words, the way they erase or bring back the past, but also on the safeguarding of critical thinking and transmission within a people as tormented as they are creative.” (Presentation of editions of The Iconoclast)
Delphine Minoui is laureate of the Constantinople Prize.