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That Year
"That year" is the first book written by Sevda Khatamian, which is a story of her new apartment and a bunch of misfortunes in life. She jokes about stories in her past and believes that time changes the feelings. All the incidents happen in one year and it starts with moving in her new apartment.
202 pages, Paperback
Published December 16, 2015
11 people want to read
About the author
Sevda Khatamian
3 books14 followersSevda Khatamian, nineteen eighty-nine, her family was already living in Tehran when she was born in the month of July. Although her parents were in touch with friends and other members of the family, it was mostly the four of them hanging out together. Her father used to run his own business and her mother worked in a hospital. Later she became a lawyer. Soheil, her older brother, moved abroad right after he graduated from high school. Sevda took the same path and moved out of the country by the time she was eighteen.
After six years of living in Ankara, studying, working, and eventually living an unemployed life concentrated on personal creative projects, she decided to move to Istanbul, and discover life on another level, and back up new experiences for the future.
She now travels as an artist in residence, and lives in different countries for short periods of time. She believes creativity dawns as she moves along with the road.
After six years of living in Ankara, studying, working, and eventually living an unemployed life concentrated on personal creative projects, she decided to move to Istanbul, and discover life on another level, and back up new experiences for the future.
She now travels as an artist in residence, and lives in different countries for short periods of time. She believes creativity dawns as she moves along with the road.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 8, 2016
I loved this book. In fact I was pleasantly surprised. The sweet narration of this book hooked me right form the beginning. Sevda for sure is an artist from heart and soul. The refined writing style reminded me of some great writers of the likes Milan Kundera & Satre! The author has a gift of observation and thinking to extract extraordinary from ordinary.
I was also quite captivated by the cover. It was one of those books where the cover attracts you and almost promises you that you are about to get into an artist's mind.
Exceedingly fresh and simple, yet very engaging till the end, this book is a must read.
I was also quite captivated by the cover. It was one of those books where the cover attracts you and almost promises you that you are about to get into an artist's mind.
Exceedingly fresh and simple, yet very engaging till the end, this book is a must read.
March 16, 2016
Boy, what can happen in a year! This book is about how life can take us for a ride. It is about things that can happen in just one year. I think it was a good book. * I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review*
May 19, 2019
I enjoyed the book a lot, and I almost felt everything was happening to me as I was reading the book...
My favourite chapter was "Grandpa", it was so emotional and I loved it the most,
but I didn't like the last two chapters as much as the rest.
Great work Sevda 👍🏻
My favourite chapter was "Grandpa", it was so emotional and I loved it the most,
but I didn't like the last two chapters as much as the rest.
Great work Sevda 👍🏻
May 6, 2016
I received a free copy of this book in return for a frank appraisal.
Well, it was certainly something of mind-blowing experience, and I couldn’t quite make out exactly what I thought of it. In a way it was like being in William Burroughs’ ‘Naked Lunch’ or in ‘Last Exit to Brooklyn’, as you find yourself in a scatological world with the narrator in mental and physical chaos as she bumps around from flat to flat, getting drunk and taking drugs with equally dysfunctional friends – and at the same time able to get occasional work.
It isn’t made clear where the year takes place (I assume it’s Iran, but it could be Turkey or anywhere), but in a way, it doesn’t matter. The author is on an internal journey, and as was said of Burroughs, all the action is derived from an “algebra of need”. Like Burroughs, too, the narrator is entirely self-absorbed, yet sees everything, including her own actions with existentialist objectivity. It’s an extraordinary combination, and deserves considerable literary praise
It is an extremely forceful book and written with huge energy. The writing itself is brilliant, though in need of some proofreading, and despite there being hardly any dialogue, passages sparkle and flash as you are taken stumbling along through this amazing shambles of someone’s life. There are even some wonderfully nutty but delicate doodles and drawings of the places she lives in dotted throughout the narrative (not something one usually encounters in what is quite a literary work).
In many ways it’s a remarkable work of literature, and again, as with Burroughs, you can pick it up anywhere and be whirled into its vortex.
Well, it was certainly something of mind-blowing experience, and I couldn’t quite make out exactly what I thought of it. In a way it was like being in William Burroughs’ ‘Naked Lunch’ or in ‘Last Exit to Brooklyn’, as you find yourself in a scatological world with the narrator in mental and physical chaos as she bumps around from flat to flat, getting drunk and taking drugs with equally dysfunctional friends – and at the same time able to get occasional work.
It isn’t made clear where the year takes place (I assume it’s Iran, but it could be Turkey or anywhere), but in a way, it doesn’t matter. The author is on an internal journey, and as was said of Burroughs, all the action is derived from an “algebra of need”. Like Burroughs, too, the narrator is entirely self-absorbed, yet sees everything, including her own actions with existentialist objectivity. It’s an extraordinary combination, and deserves considerable literary praise
It is an extremely forceful book and written with huge energy. The writing itself is brilliant, though in need of some proofreading, and despite there being hardly any dialogue, passages sparkle and flash as you are taken stumbling along through this amazing shambles of someone’s life. There are even some wonderfully nutty but delicate doodles and drawings of the places she lives in dotted throughout the narrative (not something one usually encounters in what is quite a literary work).
In many ways it’s a remarkable work of literature, and again, as with Burroughs, you can pick it up anywhere and be whirled into its vortex.
July 25, 2016
Reminiscent of the existential style of Henry Miller or Jean-Paul Sartre, Khatamian turns the everyday minutiae of daily life into literature.
The story follows a young woman's first year of independence from her family; assembling a life and the furnishings of an apartment in a foreign country. Just where she is from, or where she has come to, remain unnamed, underscoring the universality of her coming-of-age tale. The book is further enhanced by the use of sketches and the unusual technique of inserting handwritten text to emphasize certain passages; usually her inner thoughts.
Khatamian's straightforward no-frills writing endears the narrator to readers, while both reflecting the subject matter and magnifying the significance of small adventures such as getting caught in a torrential rain, drinking wine and smoking pot with strangers in park, or waiting in an endless Kafkaesque line at the immigration office. Her observations on her own faults is spot on, and will resonate with readers who share one of her biggest problems. "I am aware I sometimes don’t listen to people when they say their names, and
my brain mutes out some parts of the conversation..." (Page 123).
A wonderful coming-of-age tale well worth the read.
The story follows a young woman's first year of independence from her family; assembling a life and the furnishings of an apartment in a foreign country. Just where she is from, or where she has come to, remain unnamed, underscoring the universality of her coming-of-age tale. The book is further enhanced by the use of sketches and the unusual technique of inserting handwritten text to emphasize certain passages; usually her inner thoughts.
Khatamian's straightforward no-frills writing endears the narrator to readers, while both reflecting the subject matter and magnifying the significance of small adventures such as getting caught in a torrential rain, drinking wine and smoking pot with strangers in park, or waiting in an endless Kafkaesque line at the immigration office. Her observations on her own faults is spot on, and will resonate with readers who share one of her biggest problems. "I am aware I sometimes don’t listen to people when they say their names, and
my brain mutes out some parts of the conversation..." (Page 123).
A wonderful coming-of-age tale well worth the read.
December 5, 2018
That Year by Sevda Khatamian is largely a book about self discovery. This memoir finds Sevda striking out on her own and trying to figure out life. It feels like you’re viewing the world through the eyes of an artist as the chapters go along. I loved Khatamian’s insights and descriptions of ordinary life. All around a beautiful read!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews