Broken Patterns

The novel opens in two parts. The prologue «10 Years Ago» is two girls' night conversation in the orphanage: Mercan has been shut in the study room as punishment, and her closest friend Elif climbs through the window with two sweets for her — given by the watchman Hasan Abi, who is sad that «Director Baba» is angry with her. Mercan is a fighter, Elif is gentle and loving; Elif says «when we grow up I will look after you» and Mercan says «I will never have children, nobody will love me». This small scene fits the characters of the two heroes and the main idea of the whole novel — the chosen family — into one page.

Chapter one opens with the heroine running: Mercan, in Elif's old T-shirt, having neither eaten nor slept for a week, waits on the slope to the orphanage for the taxi. Out of it steps Burak — Elif's husband — with the little girl İpek. Burak says «I can't look after her, I'm in debt, I can't pay the rent»; hearing «Elif is dead» Mercan finds no comfort, but İpek saying «Teyze» keeps her from collapsing. «Give her to me, I will bring her up», she says, and Burak finally hands over the baby and says «don't tell her bad things about me».

Chapter two is the best part of the novel: money is short, there is no home, the university dormitory opens in a few days, who will look after the baby if she works, and where will she find money if she does not. Mercan orders yayla soup, tears up bread and feeds the baby; in the restaurant the second bowl of soup brought by an old man takes her back to the memory of her childhood «people who fed the orphanage children». In the pension room at night İpek cries «where is Mummy?» and when Mercan cries too the child goes quiet. These episodes are simple but moving.

Chapter three gives the job hunt and the desperation. Mercan finds a night shift at a 24-hour market and puts the baby inside her sports bag in the changing room; because the camera watches everywhere her heart is in her mouth every moment. In the morning the boss sees the baby, fires the crying Mercan and gives her an envelope with far more than a day's wage. Social services, foster families, the idea of «a child returned like a gift» grow out of Mercan's orphanage experience; the author gives this experience not in cruel detail but in short, exact sentences.

Sitting in the park crying she meets her university friend Hale: Hale says «you look like a zombie», takes the baby in her arms and takes her to her home. There Mercan sleeps for hours, Hale cooks with İpek and watches cartoons, and serves mantı. Hale herself says «my father died a few months ago, I was a child when he and my mother split up». This is the warmest part of the novel: the words «learn to accept help» are the first crack in Mercan's wall of pride. The style is fluent, memory and present alternate; the repeated refrain «if Elif were here» is sometimes tiring.

• The story is told in the first person in Mercan's voice; inner monologue and memories alternate with the present
• Little İpek's voice (shortened words, «where is Auntie?») brings a natural warm tone to the novel
• The orphanage experience is given without heaviness, in small details (institutions, foster families, «Director Baba»)
• The Hale and family scenes add light humour and sincerity