Madonna in a Fur Coat: Sabahattin Ali (Penguin classics)

AMAZING BOOK!! highly recommend only around 167 pages, so quick read, beautifully written! Came in perfect condition no complaints!!

Enjoyed the read.

a wonderful, nuanced, emotional and endearing read. i loved every minute of reading this and would recommend it to everyone. a wonderful author.

In General It's a well-written, interesting, slow-paced tragi-romance story, that reveals its characters internal qualms about themselves and their relationships, some level of those which are very rarely expressed in real life, but with which the reader can readily sympathise. Particularly dialogued is a desperate precious pure-hearted longing for a unique love pitted against apprehension, a wall of preperceptions and seemingly unassailable expectations. It's not terribly exciting in any regard, though may perhaps have been for the retrospectively feeble-hearted unstimulated romantics of the time with no multi-channel televisions, CGI action thrillers, nor hard-core pornography at their fingertips. That said, it is most pleasant and evocative to experience second-hand this slower sepia-paced life with its incessant trivial observations of minutiae long-gone and ever-present. Perhaps, if I read it in the bleak mid-winter, rather than in spring, I might be more touched by the desperate lonely sentiment of it all... Of the Subject(/Object) Character (Note, this reflection was written before the full conclusion of the story.) We must all content ourselves with aspects of reality we cannot change. Maria was possessed of a type of human conditional craving that can never be sated, always wanting something else, something more, something total and profound, a perfect lasting connection to her own self-obsessed zharring personas, skipping just ahead of her, a figment that could never be realised. The like of which leads so many to addictions. She was bereft in her dissatisfied solitude, forever vainly seeking that missing piece of her puzzle. She needed to calm the heck down and get over herself. So did Raif. Maybe even more so. Jebus heck.

Great book ideal for travel 166 pages.love the story & writing style

This is a slow, precise account of one man, Raif Efendi as told by one of his colleagues. If the quality of a novel is based on the quality of the characterisation, then this is certainly a sure-fire hit. Raif is seemingly a nondescript man who makes no attempt to make friends or court popularity. Mocked by shallow juniors at work and derided by many members of his family, he barely seems to exist. Turkish life of the period enhances the bleak descriptions of the period. The story is told by a colleague who barely knows Raif, and that too adds a cold irony to the storytelling. Yet when Raif dies in poverty-stricken circumstances surrounded by bickering family, his diary comes to light. At this point, we have an elegiac flashback told in Raif's own words: sadness, pain and longing infuse this tale of a seemingly soulless man. A book to haunt the reader long after the last page.

Lovely gift for a friend, sure she will. Enjoy it

the story conveyns the depth and complexity of human mind and feelings, mystery of love, doubts and loneliness.Wonderful description of life in Berlin at that time and also of what Turkey was like at that period. Still the reader .left with many questions: Why Raif Efendi, a clever man, is so indecisive and shy? Why his eyes filled with tears every time he is unhappy or somebody is kind to him?

وصلني بعد يوم من الطلب الكتاب بحاله ممتازه مافيه اي دامج

livro super macio e sem nenhuma avaria!

A beautifully written, slow-burn novel that explores love, loneliness, and self-discovery with remarkable depth. The characters feel real, and the emotions linger long after the last page. Quiet, poignant, and thought-provoking, definitely worth reading if you enjoy literary fiction.

I’m so in love with this book!! As you can see, I took it everywhere with me to read it :)

esto no es algo por lo que normalmente me quejaría pero llegó roto :-(