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  • Published: 19 November 2019
  • ISBN: 9781590510988
  • Imprint: Other Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 192
  • RRP: $32.99

Labyrinth

A Novel





Notable International Crime Novel of the Year - Crime Reads / Lit Hub

From a prize-winning Turkish novelist, a heady, political tale of one man's search for identity and meaning in Istanbul after the loss of his memory.

Notable International Crime Novel of the Year – Crime Reads / Lit Hub

From a prize-winning Turkish novelist, a heady, political tale of one man’s search for identity and meaning in Istanbul after the loss of his memory.

A blues singer, Boratin, attempts suicide by jumping off the Bosphorus Bridge, but opens his eyes in the hospital. He has lost his memory, and can't recall why he wished to end his life. He remembers only things that are unrelated to himself, but confuses their timing. He knows that the Ottoman Empire fell, and that the last sultan died, but has no idea when. His mind falters when remembering civilizations, while life, like a labyrinth, leads him down different paths.

From the confusion of his social and individual memory, he is faced with two questions. Does physical recognition provide a sense of identity? Which is more liberating for a man, or a society: knowing the past, or forgetting it?

Embroidered with Borgesian micro-stories, Labyrinth flows smoothly on the surface while traversing sharp bends beneath the current.

  • Published: 19 November 2019
  • ISBN: 9781590510988
  • Imprint: Other Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 192
  • RRP: $32.99

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Praise for Labyrinth

Praise for Istanbul, Istanbul:

"A writer of passion, memory and heart, Sönmez revives not only the stories of a land but also its bruised conscience." --Elif Shafak, author of The Bastard of Istanbul

"Istanbul, Istanbul turns on the tension between the confines of a prison cell and the vastness of the imagination; between the vulnerable borders of the body and the unassailable depths of the mind. This is a harrowing, riveting novel, as unforgettable as it is inescapable." --Dale Peck, author of Visions and Revisions

"A wrenching love poem to Istanbul told between torture sessions by four prisoners in their cell beneath the city. An ode to pain in which Dostoevsky meets The Decameron." --John Ralston Saul, author of On Equilibrium; former president, PEN International