Love that does not exclude anyone who loves from being loved…! Isn’t that a beautiful assumption? If you really love, if your feelings are intense, very intense, wouldn’t this energy somehow pass to your beloved? Would this current, attraction or whatever you call it be enough to make him/her love you back? Would it be the same intensity in return? Would it bring hands and hearts together? Does it have to bring them together? Isn’t just waiting and hoping part of love anyway? Maybe those moments when love is at its most intense, those moments of expectation mixed with dreams where every look, every word, every small movement means thousands of things… A great poet said that he/she knows something. Dante had Francesca say this sentence in the Inferno, or hell, section of his immortal work The Divine Comedy. The Egyptian-born, half-Italian American writer Andre Aciman also took it and put it in his much-loved, almost cult novel Call Me by Your Name. I really liked the section where this sentence was used, I quoted it and opened the new section of I am a Reader. It is up to the lovers, readers and of course the listeners to say 'where is me, where is me'. Yes sir, in this episode we will talk a lot about love, passion, our obsessions, our dreams and our unfinished stories. We will jump on the backs of words and be swept from here to there in the land of emotions. Andre Aciman will lead us on this path, but in fact, as in the end of every good novel, the path will lead to ourselves. Aciman will gently hold our hands and turn us inward. He will make his narrative, which he wraps with the magic of all branches of art, without ever feeling it, with the grace and equipment that his life, which sways from one corner of the world to another, has given him, a bit of our story. Are you ready for this incredible journey? Leave your prejudices, fears, harsh and contradictory corners aside. Our love of literature and sincere feelings are enough for us. Just take them with you. If you are ready, we are ready too. In front of me, on the other microphone, there is a very valuable writer and a dear friend of mine who has adopted Elio from Call Me by Your Name as if he were a close friend, and is deeply attached to the novel: Karin Karakaşlı. May the excitement and love in her voice rub off on you. Andre Aciman, in his own words, is a writer who has built a home for himself with pen and paper. Because as we said, he cannot feel at home anywhere. Well, in his own words, pen and paper is not a very safe haven either, as you know, it can be crumpled up and thrown away at any moment. The life that gave him this feeling of insecurity begins in 1951 in Alexandria, Egypt. His father is a Sephardic Jew born in Turkey but immigrated to Egypt. His mother is of Italian origin. French was spoken in the house he grew up in, but the languages ​​he heard around him were various. Italian, Ladino, Greek and Arabic… The family, who could never become Egyptian citizens because of their roots, owns a knitting factory and is quite well-off. When he starts going to an English school, English is added to Aciman’s wide range of languages. As the only Jewish child in his class, Andre always felt alone. In fact, he was not a religious person. As he walked through the people of Alexandria, who were of different religions, languages ​​and races, he felt like he was being followed on every deserted street, that he was about to be pointed at and attacked, and his childhood was filled with an uncanny feeling. He learned what it meant to be excluded and pushed away at a young age. His family resisted the great flight from Egypt that took place after the Suez Crisis in 1956. Despite all these war conditions, they did not want to give up their wealth and established order. They were a wealthy family, after all. However, when the tension between Egypt and Israel escalated in 1965, they were forced to leave the country. Because the uncanny feeling that little Andre felt inside had become unbearable. There was all kinds of violence on the streets of Alexandria, from insults to stones. After his father obtained the family's Italian citizenship, his mother and Andre moved to Rome. His father went to Paris. These roads that wander from here to there finally lead to the new continent, New York, in 1968. Andre, who had been writing poetry since he was a child and always received support from those around him, suddenly realized at the age of 16 that he was a terrible poet and, in his own words, took a step back and turned to prose. Then he studied Comparative Literature and English Literature. He also did his MA and PhD in comparative literature at Harvard University. And so his academic career began. Aciman is currently a professor at the City University of New York, teaching literary theory and Marcel Proust courses. #denizyücebaşarır #benokurum #adınlaçağırbeni #andreaciman #karinkarakaşlı