|
|
|
|
Metis Fiction
Novel
13 x 19.5 cm, 352 pp
ISBN No. 975-342-465-5
|
|
Prints:
|
|
|
1st Print: April 2004
7th Print: April 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Download high resolution copy 
|
|
|
|
About the Author
|
|
|
|
Elif Shafak is one of the leading novelists in Turkey. Born in 1971 in Strasbourg, she received her PhD in political science. Her first novel Pinhan (The Sufi, 1997) was awarded the Mevlâna Award in 1998. She then published Şehrin Aynaları (Mirrors of the City, 1999), Mahrem (The Gaze) which won the Turkish Writers' Association Best Novel of the Year Award in 2000, Bit Palas (Flea Palace, 2002) and The Saint of Incipient Insanities (2004). Her essays on gender, identity, cultural fragmentation, language and literature were collected in a volume entitled Med-Cezir (Ebb and Flow, 2005). She is a columnist for two major Turkish papers and she contributes to various European and American papers, including Berliner Zeitung, The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. She is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at University of Arizona, previously she taught at the University of Michigan. Her books have been translated into various languages, her most recent novel The Bastard of Istanbul (2007) was published by Viking Penguin in the US.
|
|
|
|
Other Books from Metis
|
|
|
Pinhan (Sufi), 1997
Şehrin Aynaları (Mirrors of the City), 1999
Mahrem (The Gaze), 2000
Bit Palas (The Flea Palace), 2002
Beşpeşe, 2004
Med-Cezir (Ebb and Tide), 2005
Baba ve Piç (The Bastard of Istanbul), 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
Elif Shafak
|
|
|
|
The Saint of Incipient Insanities
|
Araf
|
Rights sold / published by:
Dutch: De Geus
English: Farrar Straus & Giroux
German: Eichborn
Greek: Livanis
Literary agency: Marly Rusoff & Associates
|
Reviews
Excerpt
|
|
|
|
Shafak’s English-language debut The Saint of Incipient Insanities is the comic and heartbreaking story of a group of twenty-something friends, and their never-ending quest for fulfillment. Omer, Abed and Piyu are roommates, foreigners all recently arrived in the United States. Omer, from Istanbul, is a PhD student in political science who adapts quickly to his new home, and falls in love with the bisexual, suicidal, intellectual chocolate maker Gail. Gail is American yet feels utterly displaced in her homeland and moves from one obsession to another in an effort to find solid ground. Abed pursues a degree in biotechnology, worries about Omer’s unruly ways, his mother’s unexpected visit, and stereotypes of Arabs in America; he struggles to maintain a connection with his girlfriend back home in Morocco. Piyu is a Spaniard, who is studying to be a dentist in spite of his fear of sharp objects, and is baffled by the many relatives of his Mexican-American girlfriend, Alegre, and in many ways by Alegre herself. Keenly insightful and sharply humorous, The Saint of Incipient Insanities is a vibrant exploration of love, friendship, culture, nationality, exile and belonging.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Adam Langer, author of Crossing California
|
|
|
|
"This is an exhilarating roller coaster ride of a novel – a breathless and vivid journey into the lives of a motley assortment of brilliant, obsessive, and often troubled young immigrants, and an American whom one of them marries. With its themes of displacement, its Boston-area setting, and its ease with academic topics, Shafak's novel suggests Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake with the amplifier cranked up all the way to eleven. A work replete with dazzling wordplay, an infatuation with pop culture, and a fearless intellect, The Saint of Incipient Insanities marks Elif Shafak as a compellingly original voice in 21st Century fiction."
|
|
|
|
Fernanda Eberstadt, author of The Furies
|
|
|
|
"Elif Shafak offers us an indelibly haunting portrait of contemporary America, in all its sexual/ethno/religious contortions. Goofy, sad, wise, and heart-breakingly funny, her novel is a bittersweet delight to read."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
“What a nice coincidence,” Debra forced herself into a smile, “I’m so glad. I know what a wonderful cook you are.” She seemed different somehow, much more self-confident than she looked back in the reading group. “Would you mind if we start working right away, time is running and nothing is ready yet.”
She led Alegre to an indigo kitchen, wall-to-wall stuffed with packets, boxes, tins and cans of food, food, and more food. The guests, she told, would show up after seven o’clock, and would presumably be very hungry by eight thirty. In total, there were twenty-two people expected to come. “And we are two in the house. That makes twenty-four mouths to feed. What do you think? Can we manage it?”
But as it’d soon be revealed, there was no “we”. There was only Alegre. Never in her cooking history had she been in the position to cook so much food in so little time for so many people. Yet, this culinary dependability must have had a calming effect on her nerves, for she felt fully capable of the task, at ease here. While she stood inspecting her materials and ingredients, Debra Ellen Thompson had time to inspect her. Somehow Alegre looked different now, much less timorous than she was in the reading group...
Click for more
|
|
|
|
