Madonna in a Fur Coat

Sabahattin Ali (1907-1948) was born in the Ottoman town of Egridere (now Ardino in southern Bulgaria). A teacher, novelist, short-story writer and journalist, he owned and edited a popular weekly newspaper called Marko Pasa. He is admired for the determination with which he defended his political beliefs, which are anchored through his writing. Madonna in A Fur Coat, first published in 1943, is his best-loved work and a touchstone of Turkish literary culture which continues to resonate profoundly with readers young and old today. Maureen Freely is a writer, a Professor at Warwick University, and the Chair of Trustees of English PEN. She has published seven novels and numerous translations of twentieth century Turkish classics and contemporary authors including five books by the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk. Alexander Dawe has translated several works from French and Turkish including the short stories of Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar and Sait Faik. David Selim Sayers is a founding faculty member of the Paris Institute for Critical Thinking (PICT). He teaches and writes on cultural history, particularly in relation to the Middle East and to narrative arts such as film and literature.

You think you know yearning ... you think you know the fleeting nature of happiness ... you think you know unrequited love, you think you know lyrical writing ... and then you read Madonna in a Fur Coat