New Book: From Life Itself Out April 28th, 2026
From the author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Notes on a Foreign Country, comes an absorbing portrait of an Istanbul neighborhood reshaped by global forces.
Praise for From Life Itself
What Autocracy Feels Like: Hansen elegantly maps out the constellation of forces that brought Turkey to [an] unprecedented moment . . . Rich and complex . . . As [Hansen] shows in this beautifully observant book, the first steps to resisting the easy seductions of cynicism are to look, listen and try to understand.
For readers interested in geopolitics, this is the kind of book that reminds you that big political shifts rarely feel ‘big’ while you’re living through them . . . Hansen writes with empathy for people navigating a country that’s becoming more polarized and more self-conscious about its identity, a dynamic anyone watching global politics will recognize―maybe even in your own backyard.
[Hansen] goes to remarkable lengths to achieve a degree of realism that wasn’t present in Turkey coverage in previous generations of journalists . . . [Her] discussions are always grounded in some kind of real person she has built a relationship with . . . Hansen is arguing that depth brings its own breadth.
About Suzy Hansen
Suzy Hansen lived in Istanbul for more than a decade, where she was a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and many other publications. Her first book, Notes on a Foreign Country, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction and the winner of the Overseas Press Club of America’s Cornelius Ryan Award. Her second book, From Life Itself: Turkey, Istanbul and Neighborhood in the Age of Erdogan, is being published in April 2026. She has taught writing at Princeton University, New York University, and Bard College.
Notes on a Foreign Country
My first book Notes on a Foreign Country was a Finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction, and the winner of the Overseas Press Club’s Cornelius Ryan Award for Best Nonfiction Book on International Affairs.
