Silent House

by Orhan Pamuk

First published 1983

Amazon

3.5(200)

In the summer of 1980, the elderly Fatma awaits her grandchildren in a decaying house at Cennethisar, a former fishing village near Istanbul. Historian Faruk searches local archives, Nilgün remains committed to left-wing politics, and the adolescent Metin dreams of escaping to America. Their annual visit revives memories of Fatma’s exiled husband and of the family’s unequal relationship with the servant Recep.

Recep’s nephew Hasan has entered an increasingly violent nationalist group and directs his resentment towards Nilgün. Five narrators reveal incompatible accounts of class, religion, westernisation and family guilt as political conflict moves towards the military coup of September 1980. The quiet domestic gathering becomes a portrait of a country whose public divisions have penetrated private memory and desire.