Turkey has some of the most esteemed writers in recent history. Maybe they are not yet as famous as their counterparts in the West but with translations of their work into various languages today it is possible to explore these Turkish authors and poets and their exquisite way of writing. Enjoy our Recommendations for the Best Turkish Books to Read.
10 Best Turkish Books to Read
Dear Shameless Death by Latife Tekin
This is the strange, magical story of a young girl growing up in modern Turkey, from her birth in a small rural village haunted by fairies and demons to her traumatic move to the big city. Based on her own childhood experiences, Latife Tekin’s literary debut marked a turning point in Turkish fiction.
Concentrating on a daughter’s struggle against her overbearing mother set against the pressures of a rapidly changing society, Dear Shameless Death is a fantastic, hallucinatory novel, with strong feminist insights about what it means to be a woman growing up in Turkey today.
A major best seller in her native Turkey, Latife Tekin maintains a politically active presence and has written a number of literary works. Her first novel, Berji Kristin: Tales from the Garbage Hills, was published by Marion Boyars to great critical acclaim.
Istanbul Istanbul by Burhan Sönmez
Below the ancient streets of Istanbul, four prisoners – Demirtay the student, the doctor, Kamo the barber and Uncle Küheylan – sit, awaiting their turn at the hands of their wardens. When they are not subject to unimaginable violence, the condemned tell one another stories about the city, shaded with love and humour, to pass the time. Quiet laughter is their balm, delivered through parables and riddles. Gradually, the prisoners’ underground narrative turns into a narrative of Istanbul itself, and we discover there is as much suffering and hope in the city above-ground as there is in the cells below.
Translated into more than twenty languages, this is a profoundly moving novel about the transformative power of words in times of desperation.
Summer’s End by Adalet Ağaoğlu
Narrated by an author on vacation among the classical ruils of the ancient city of Side on the Mediterannean coast in Turkey, Summer’s End provides an intricate picture of a large cross-section of modern Turkish society. The novel offers a complex multi-dimensional and multi-leveled view of cultural values, politics, sexuality, and personal dilemmas. Summer’s End is one of the most celebrated works by Adalet Angaoglu, widely considered to be one of the principal novelists of our time.
Snapping Point by Asli Biçen
What starts as the realistic tale of a charming provincial town develops into a richly detailed political novel in a fantastic setting. Biçen’s dreamy language weaves a flowing style that transports the reader into every nook and cranny of Andalıç and the crystal-clear waters of the Aegean; her metaphors are imaginative, her observations insightful, and her descriptions melodious.
The Highly Unreliable Account of the History of a Madhouse by Ayfer Tunç
The Highly Unreliable Account of the Brief History of a Madhouse is an ever-expanding novel that moves at a dizzying pace. A literary panorama of Turkey that defies boundaries spatial or temporal: one end in the 19th century, and the other in the 21st. A book of human landscapes that startles anew with a completely unexpected turn of events, immediately after deceiving the reader into thinking the end of a plot line might be in sight.
The novel starts in a small-town mental asylum with its back to the Black Sea, and weaves its way through a highly entertaining chain of interlinked lives, each link a complex and bewildering personality. The Highly Unreliable Account follows the trails of political and social milestones left on individual lives across a span of nearly a century.
Motherland Hotel by Yusuf Atilgan
Zeberjet, the last surviving member of a once prosperous Ottoman family, is the owner of the Motherland Hotel, a run-down establishment a rundown establishment near the railroad station. A lonely, middle-aged introvert, his simple life is structured by daily administrative tasks and regular, routine sex with the hotel’s maid.
One day, a beautiful woman from the capital comes to spend the night, promising to return “next week,” and suddenly Zeberjet’s insular, mechanical existence is dramatically and irrevocably changed. The mysterious woman’s presence has tantalized him, and he begins to live his days in fevered anticipation of her return. But the week passes, and then another, and as his fantasies become more and more obsessive, Zeberjet gradually loses his grip on reality.
Motherland Hotel was hailed as the novel of the year when it was published in 1973, astonishing critics with its experimental style, its intense psychological depth and its audacious description of sexual obsession.
Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali
A shy young man leaves his home in rural Turkey to learn a trade in 1920s Berlin. The city’s crowded streets, thriving arts scene, passionate politics and seedy cabarets provide the backdrop for a chance meeting with a woman, which will haunt him for the rest of his life. Emotionally powerful, intensely atmospheric and touchingly profound, Madonna in a Fur Coat is an unforgettable novel about new beginnings and the unfathomable nature of the human soul.
The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak
A magical, cross-century tale of self-discovery
Ella Rubinstein has a husband, three teenage children, and a pleasant home. Everything that should make her confident and fulfilled. Yet there is an emptiness at the heart of Ella’s life – an emptiness once filled by love.
So when Ella reads a manuscript about the thirteenth-century Sufi poet Rumi and Shams of Tabriz, and his forty rules of life and love, she is shocked out of herself. Turning her back on her family she embarks on a journey to meet the mysterious author of this work.
It is a quest infused with Sufi mysticism and verse, taking Ella and us into an exotic world where faith and love are heartbreakingly explored…
A Strangeness in my Mind by Orhan Pamuk
Arriving in Istanbul as a boy, Mevlut Karatas is enthralled by both the old city that is disappearing and the new one that is fast being built. He becomes a street vendor, like his father, hoping to strike it rich, but luck never seems to be on Mevlut’s side. He spends three years writing love letters to a girl he has seen just once, only to elope by mistake with her sister. Although he grows to cherish his wife and the family they have together, Mevlut stumbles toward middle age as everyone around him seems to be reaping the benefits of a rapidly modernizing Turkey.
Told through the eyes of a diverse cast of characters, in A Strangeness in My Mind Nobel-prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk paints a brilliant tableau of life among the newcomers who have changed the face of Istanbul over the past fifty years.
In Jail with Nazim Hikmet by Orhan Kemal
Bursa prison, mid-winter 1940. Two prisoners meet, both writers, both serving long sentences for allegedly inciting Turkish soldiers to mutiny. One is Turkey’s most famous poet and communist, Nazim Hikmet; the other a young, aspiring poet, Orhan Kemal, who now shares a cell with the man whose work he has long admired.
In this prison memoir, Orhan Kemal reminisces on the time he shared with the remarkable poet and describes how Nazim inspired him to become one of Turkey’s most popular and successful novelists. A fascinating account of one of the most poignant friendships in Turkish letters, this volume includes Orhan Kemal’s diary entries and Nazim’s letters to him after Orhan’s release from prison in 1943.
If you enjoyed our selection of the Best Turkish Books to Read, check out our reading list for the Best Middle Eastern Books to Read.
