A Midlife Dream

Believe me when I say that it pains me to write these lines, but I have to listen to the urge inside me. I am not my old self any more.

Now in middle age, a woman confronts her inner self for the first time, questioning her childhood, her adolescence, her parents marriage. She struggles to come to terms with her past, present and future, with only her stepdaughter to rely on. But it is not until she awakens from an infatuation that she fully realizes who she really is… This sweeping yet intimate novel intertwines the personal and political as it traces one woman s existence across time and against a background of social unrest, to show how present love, pain and violence are rooted in the past and endure into the future. Truths that were obscured behind layers of repression are slowly revealed, proving that no matter how individuals, families and societies try to suppress and forget parts of their pasts, the effects of these hidden truths are felt generation after generation. A stunningly vibrant and compelling work by a major Turkish writer, who with a deft yet compassionate touch uncovers and brings to life the history and identity not only of a woman and a family, but of a whole country.