LONGLISTED FOR THE FT/OPPENHEIMERFUNDS EMERGING VOICES AWARD 2016
'Toptas seems to me Orhan Pamuk's equal ... He strikes me as just as gifted a writer' Sydney Morning Herald
Thirty years after completing his military service Ziya flees the spiralling turmoil of one of Turkey's great sprawling cities to seek a serene existence in a dream-like village.
Kenan - an old friend from the army - is there to greet him. However, the village does not provide the total isolation Ziya years for and he is forced back through the tangled web of his memory in search of his lost family and the reason why Kenan feels so extravagantly indebted to him.
Reckless masterfully blurs the boundaries between memory and reality to create a gripping tale that introduces a major writer to English-language readers.
'Toptas seems to me Orhan Pamuk's equal ... He strikes me as just as gifted a writer' Sydney Morning Herald
Thirty years after completing his military service Ziya flees the spiralling turmoil of one of Turkey's great sprawling cities to seek a serene existence in a dream-like village.
Kenan - an old friend from the army - is there to greet him. However, the village does not provide the total isolation Ziya years for and he is forced back through the tangled web of his memory in search of his lost family and the reason why Kenan feels so extravagantly indebted to him.
Reckless masterfully blurs the boundaries between memory and reality to create a gripping tale that introduces a major writer to English-language readers.
A wonderful and gripping story. It took me to a seemingly unfamiliar part of the planet and then showed me that there was nothing unfamiliar about it - love is love everywhere, a brother is a brother, betrayal is betrayal. This is news and history made intimate. I am deeply grateful to Hasan Ali Toptas for having told me this story and look forward to others from him Nadeem Aslam