What if the memories of those who came before us are not just stories, but a physical weight we are fated to carry forever?

In The Dead on My Back (Sırtımdaki Ölüler), award-winning author Yavuz Ekinci presents a haunting collection of stories written in his early twenties, yet possessing the wisdom of an ancient soul. This collection, which earned him the prestigious Milliyet Haldun Taner Short Story Award, serves as a blueprint for the mythic and tragic themes that define his later masterpieces. Ekinci’s prose transforms the mundane—a cracked wall, a silent room—into a living graveyard of human experience. Through characters caught in a liminal state between sleep, intoxication, and death, the narrative explores the relentless passage of time and the echoes of suppressed histories. It is a visceral journey into the heart of storytelling itself, where every word is heavy with the burden of the past.