Here are a few quotations from the articles:

Aslı Erdogan’s novel, translated into German by Angelika Gilltz Acar and Angelika Hoch, and published as ‘ Die Stadt mit der Roten Pelerine’ by sverlag early 2000, has made three editions first week, or rather has been published as eleven thousand copies. The book has received enormous attention from German literary circles as well as the press and the readers.51 reviews and interviews have appeared in newspapers and literary magazines such as Die Welt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Der Tagesspiegel, Die Presse, Freitag, Stutgarter Nachrichten, Die Berliner Literaturkritik, Buchkultur, Buch Aktuell,etc and TV channels as ZDF, WDR, 3SAT.. The author,has been compared to such authors as Joyce, Kafka, Malcolm Lowry and Antonin Artaud in the international press (see below) .

”Chaos of inner life is constantly pondered upon and depicted. The
originality and the appeal of this book lays in the constant clash of inner
and outer world, which blurs our concept of reality.”

”Özgür’s love (for Rio) costed her life or not, is left open throughout the
book, right till the end the narrated is ultimately blended and
nated with what is actually lived. In the last pages we realize how
well Erdoğan has chosen the epigraph from Celan ’YOU were my death:/ You
I could hold, / When all fell away from me’ What the author in fact never
lost is her capability to depict a dangerous fall, a complete ruin, which so
far in literature only man could live till the end. A truly feminine
sensibility, with no mixing up of gender roles voices itself. Not only
Orpheus, but also Persephone, the queen and the prisoner of the Underworld
talks to us throuh these pages.”



Quotes from Sybille Thelen’s article in Stuttgarter Nachrichten
‘’ The novel is less about full life, but about bald death, less about dedication but desperation, less lust but suffering. ‘’
‘’ Erdogan’s message is somehow uncompromisingly universal.’’
Some quotes from the newspaper Dresdner Nachrichten.



”Erdogans dark portrait of a young female Turc does not know any taboos. Her dramatic descriptions of an existential bitterness in so—called paradise does not leave anything out.”

”Erdogan juggles brillantly with many pictures, with language and dangerously fascinating characters. She rebuilds a magic cosmos, and it is without question that the tragical end of the protagonist is a kind of solution.”



A quote from Aftenposten’s review:




”I have not heard the author’s name, but ”Byen med den røde kappa” is
beyond doubt the best I have reviewed this autumn. Overwhelming, violent
and raw.”

”In the same way that Dublin and Joyce belong together, or Praha and Kafka,
for me from now on Rio will be inextricably bound together with the name
Asli Erdogan. With this volume she writes herself into a dominating
tradition linked to last century’s novels: : the novel of the town.”

(Aftenposten is the biggest cultural newspaper in Norway.)

A quote from Morgenbladet:



”The quality of the novel shows itself in full bloom when Özgür’s story in
a serious way is integrated in the story of the town Rio, a relationship
that depends on the fact that Özgür also in a physical sense is taken up by
the lifethreathening, rolling metabolism of the town.”

”The style is filmic, and the form dynamic, rendered in the translation
into irreproachable Norwegian by Gunvald Ims.

(Morgenbladet is a weekly, very cultural newspaper)
Quote fom Libre Belgique
‘’ The author’s name is whispered in the same breath with Malcolm Löwry and Antonin Artaud. ‘’
‘’ The description in Asli Erdogan’s novel is breathtaking. The work is so much its setting. Deep.Complicated .Raw. Difficult.Musical. I never wanted to leave a scene and yet I couldnt wait for t he next. This truly is a fine book.
Percival Everett (American writer)