Books from Türkiye

Dilara, a Turkish exile living in a small Italian town, is struggling to care for her father, whose memories are gradually disappearing as dementia takes hold. Preparing to welcome him into her home, she commissions a renovation to make the apartment more comfortable. But when the builders finish, she discovers that her new bathroom has been transformed into a Turkish prison cell, complete with guards and prisoners. What initially seems like an absurd mistake soon becomes a mysterious connection to the homeland Dilara left behind. Through the cell, she encounters echoes of Istanbul, her family’s painful past, and the political violence that forced them into exile. As her domestic life begins to unravel, the prison becomes an unexpected gateway to memories she can neither fully recover nor escape. Blending surrealism, dark humour, and political allegory, The Renovation explores exile, belonging, family, and the ways political oppression and personal grief can imprison us long after we have crossed borders.