Literature "Der Libellenspiegel" completes the trilogy about Beyto
The Kurdish-Swiss author Yusuf Yeşilöz returns to the "Beyto universe" with "The Dragonfly Mirror". In the final part of his trilogy, after Beyto and Beyto's parents, he now focuses on Sahar, Beyto's cousin and still-wife.
19.08.2024, 07:15
22.08.2024, 15:50
SDA
The novel "Der Libellenspiegel" follows "Hochzeitsflug" (2011), which was filmed in 2020 with the title "Beyto", and "Wunschplatane" (2018). The trilogy was not planned from the outset, Yeşilöz told the Keystone-SDA news agency. But as he was often asked after "Hochzeitsflug" what would happen next with the characters and their many stories, he decided to write the second novel from the parents' point of view.
They did not want to accept their son's homosexuality and forced him to marry Sahar. "Even if you don't agree with what they did to their son, you have the right to know why they went so far," says Yeşilöz.
The view of Beyto's wife Sahar
Later, the question of what the forced marriage did to Beyto's wife Sahar, "how she dealt with it," became pressing even for him. She now has the floor in "Der Libellenspiegel".
As each novel is a stand-alone story, readers can jump in wherever they like. Each story stands on its own and is "anchored in a social context", Yeşilöz continues.
Sahar has since given birth to a daughter. The child is by a Michael, to whom she is not married, as she is not yet divorced from her cousin Beyto. At the beginning of the novel, she introduces herself: "My name is Sahar. But Michael's mother called me Sara after my daughter Amal was born because she thought Sahar sounded too foreign. You can call me whatever you want."
These initial sentences hint at many of the central themes: Strangeness, norms or family. And similar to the first two books, Sahar leaves the decision to others in this situation. For example, the seamstress Juana: she knows that Sahar means dawn or morning twilight in German; and she always admonishes Sahar to only do what she herself thinks is right; she should not always take the feelings of others into consideration.
Fates of migrant women
In this third part, the seamstress stumbles into Sahar's life anew and impresses with her openness and curiosity: "You're my first acquaintance here to have a child so young." Or: "You're my first acquaintance to wear a nose ring!" The two women are disarmingly direct with each other. The more they talk to each other, the more obvious it becomes what fates they share: Loneliness, hurt, loss and taboos also characterize Juana's family history.
At the end, Juana warns Sahar: "Your people, all the people involved in your story, are still alive, Sahar. One day you have to confront them and make them realize that they have made your life difficult with their attitudes. The characters in my story are no longer alive."
The author Yusuf Yeşilöz once again tells his story with powerful imagery. In many of the stories, he shows a migrant Swiss reality that is torn between several worlds, living standards and contradictory norms. But he also tells of solidarity.
The trilogy ends on a conciliatory note
"Der Libellenspiegel" is a reunion with all the central characters of the Beyto universe: Beyto himself is still in London, but is in contact with Sahar, who, in view of her own reality, thinks he should have been braver from the start. His parents Nasrin and Safir, Sahar's aunt and uncle, still run their kebab store, where all these worlds and people collide. Or as Nasrin describes it: "After two cans of beer, they reveal everything about their lives, without any shyness."
The basic tone of this third and final part is hopeful and conciliatory. Safir also wants to "heal this wound and find a conclusion to the story where we can save face."
Yeşilöz focuses on the women: "The decisions are made by women themselves. Sahar didn't have much decision-making power in the first two books, even though she was the center of the story. I wanted to tell the story from the point of view of the decision-makers first. It was important to me to tell how she found her way out of the victim role and took the reins of her life into her own hands."
And so Sahar once says to her aunt Nasrin: "The three of us, you, me and Amal, will found our own village and we will reinvent the rules. "*
*This text by Philine Erni, Keystone-SDA, was realized with the help of the Gottlieb and Hans Vogt Foundation.
