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The Gaze
  • Published: 24 June 2015
  • ISBN: 9780241201916
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $24.99

The Gaze

Formats & editions
Paperback
24 June 2015
EBook
20 Oct 2010
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A beautiful and compelling novel that considers the damage which can be inflicted by our simple desire to look at others

An obese woman and her lover, a dwarf, are sick of being stared at wherever they go, and so decide to reverse roles. The man goes out wearing make-up and the woman draws a moustache on her face. But while the woman wants to hide away from the world, the man meets the stares from passers-by head on, compiling his 'Dictionary of Gazes' to explore the boundaries between appearance and reality.

Intertwined with the story of a bizarre freak-show organized in Istanbul in the 1880s, The Gaze is a humorous and carnivalesque exploration of what it means to look and be looked at...
  • Published: 24 June 2015
  • ISBN: 9780241201916
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $24.99
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About the author

Elif Shafak

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist, whose work has been translated into fifty-seven languages. The author of twenty books, fourteen of which are novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak's previous novel, THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY, was the UK’s bestselling literary hardback novel of 2025, selling over 500,000 copies. Her work has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, amongst others, and she is currently nominated for ‘Author of the Year’ at the British Book Awards. Elif Shafak was appointed President of the Royal Society of Literature in 2025. Her books have sold several million copies worldwide.
ES

Also by Elif Shafak

There are Rivers in the Sky
The Island of Missing Trees
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World
The Forty Rules of Love
The Architect's Apprentice
The Bastard of Istanbul
In One Brief Moment All Eternity
See all

Praise for The Gaze

Beautifully evoked

The Times

Original and compelling

TLS

Plays with ideas of beauty and ugliness like they're Rubik's cubes

Helen Oyeyemi

Entertaining and affecting

Publishers’ Weekly

Elif Shafak is the best author to come out of Turkey in the last decade

Orhan Pamuk

A gorgeous novel: worldly, intriguing, raucous yet elegant, teeming with love and cruelty - and brilliantly alive

A.D. Miller

Shafak's novel is a carefully crafted work of imagination... [it] will confirm Shafak's reputation as a writer of impressive range, who is not afraid to ask the big questions

Financial Times

Shafak paints a gorgeous picture of a city teeming with secrets, intrigue and romance. Lush

The Times

Vividly evoked, beautifully written... this edifying novel shows how hate and envy destroy, and how love might build the world anew

Observer

Shafak blends historical fiction, urban politics and youthful curiosity in an elaborate map of Turkey whose key is the book itself

Guardian