e-smuggler.com

by Sedef Ecer, Amelia Paranteau (Translator)

It's the end of the United Nations. Countries no longer exist, and all world citizens have become nomadic refugees, avoiding conflicts and ecological catastrophes, at the mercy of one man who controls their destinies, E-smuggler. The audience follows three women through their cyber-identities: Anaba the midwife heads to San Francisco, leaving behind her native Guatemalan village, where the Mayan population is being oppressed; Hoa Mi leaves Vietnam for Paris, at the behest of an online lover; and Zeynab sets off pregnant from Syria, while her husband, an archeologist like her, stays behind to protect the sarcophagus of a young girl who was sacrificed before the barbarians arrived. The final scene takes place on a train where the three women meet as Zeynab gives birth.

E-SMUGGLER.COM was written in Turkish (2015) and French (2016) versions by Sedef Ecer, and translated from the French by Amelia Parenteau with support from France's Centre National du Livre. Ecer and Parenteau worked to refine the translation in residency at The Lark in New York City, culminating in a staged reading at the New York Public Library in 2018, presented by Voyage Theater Company and directed by Lisa Rothe.

53 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2015

Reviews

[Altan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly interesting and engaging. I very much enjoyed reading it and translating it.