Mahi

The novel opens with its strongest scene. Mahi has come back to the neighbourhood after years, and at night she watches Ali Asaf from her window as he sits with friends in the garden opposite: he downs his rakı in one go, and when Müslüm Gürses's «Seni Yazdım» comes on, he looks up, sees Mahi behind the curtain and raises his glass to her. This silent exchange, combined with a portrait of Turkish neighbourhood culture — tables set up in gardens, «abi»s, neighbourliness — sets the novel's mood at once.

The emotional centre of the prologue is Lina, the little girl who wakes crying at midnight and wants only «Mahicik». Mahi putting her to bed, the «koala» joke, the child adding «-cik» to the end of every word — these are sincere, memorable scenes. From the kitchen, Mahi overhears Ali Asaf confessing to his friends: «Do I regret it? No. My regret is that I had no other way.» The old rubber band on Mahi's wrist — «my greatest enemy and my deepest memory» — is a small but effective symbol. The author hides the secret skilfully and prepares the reader for the journey back in time.

Chapter one begins in a completely different key: on a sweltering summer day Mahi leaves university, her friend Murat — who secretly has feelings for her — holds her hair clip «hostage», and Ali Asaf suddenly appears, scowling, «I called your name twice». Jealousy is still framed as playful sparring here, but it bears the first traces of the genre's familiar «possessive hero». Chapter two brings an evening in Bahar's family garden — tea, the arbour, the «abi»s Selim and Kaan — and more bickering as Ali Asaf calls Mahi's tea «poison».

Mahi's inner world is the novel's real subject: she believes Ali Asaf sees her only as «the neighbourhood girl who needs protecting»; near him she feels strong, but once apart «something inside breaks and shifts». The loneliness of a girl who lost her family and was raised by Emine, and her need to belong, only intensify this love. Side threads — Bahar watching the tension between her brother and her best friend with understanding, Selim's secret glances at Bahar — enrich the neighbourhood mosaic.

The weaknesses show from the first pages. The inner monologues are very long — the same feeling («if only I didn't love him») recurs several times — and dialogue is filled with the same gestures, «I gritted my teeth», «he raised an eyebrow». The unrevealed secret of the prologue keeps the reader curious, but in a 490-page novel it is questionable how long that tension can hold. For fans of the genre, though, this is a warm, emotional and easy read.

• First-person narration from Mahi's point of view
• A present-day prologue followed by a return to the past
• Each chapter opens with a poem quote and a song title (Cemal Süreya, Özdemir Asaf)