Zafer Senocak's Perilous Kinship is a journey into the racial tensions of Germany circa the twentieth century. Although the protagonist is a young man alive during the 1990s, he unwittingly discovers ties which lead him back to the question of racism in his country as early as the 1920s. Sascha Muchteschem is part Turkish and part German-Jewish. While a youth, his ancestry didn't really matter to Sascha. As an adult, however, the political situation of Germany post Cold War has proven antithetical to Sascha's very existence much less the exercise of his rights as a German citizen. In response, Sascha mostly just keeps to himself.
What Senocak accomplishes with this novel is twofold. First he raises awareness to the political and racial tensions of Germany at this time. The conversation of Germany's politics largely revolves around communism and of racism -- the Jews. Senocak brings the global discussion to the forefront, however, revealing how the locals experienced a host of problems which never reached coverage comparable or even anywhere near the Holocaust. While the Turks are not being murdered necessarily, they are being forced out of the country and discriminated against full scale.
Second, Senocak traces Sascha's ancestry back to his grandfather as an example of how cultural and ethnic roots do in fact often define a person, often without that individual's knowledge of the defining factors. It is fundamentally not Sacha's choice to be Turkish. That being said he is fond of his heritage and wishes to learn more about his culture, especially after reading his grandfather's journals and learning of the long-standing oppression of the Turkish people in Germany. Regardless, Sascha is treated as an outcast simply for who is ancestors are, even if he's never visited Turkey or adopted much of the culture. The German government punished him and his people for factors beyond their control. This is the argument against injustice which Senocak raises through the personal story of his lonely protagonist.
