The Devil Within Us
Good Fit
- Readers who want a vivid picture of 1940s Istanbul's social world — clerks, intellectual circles, Bosphorus ferries
- Anyone interested in the "weak hero" archetype — a character who blames his failures on external forces (here, quite literally, "the devil inside him") — explored with real psychological depth
- Fans of Sabahattin Ali's better-known "Madonna in a Fur Coat" looking to discover a lesser-known novel by the same author
- Readers who enjoy dialogue-heavy, fast-paced, plainly written classic prose
Not a Fit
- Readers looking for a fast-moving, plot-driven, action-heavy story — this is a slow, character-study novel
- Readers who want a clear-cut, sympathetic protagonist — Ömer is deliberately written as contradictory, at times almost unbearably weak-willed
The novel opens on the deck of a ferry from Kadıköy to the Bridge — two young men, the stout, nearsighted Nihat and the thin, restless Ömer, making small talk. As Nihat talks about university life and fellow students, Ömer suddenly launches into a 'life bores me' monologue — a bitter speech about his numbness toward school, work, people, even suggesting that death is 'the only real act available to us.'
This opening monologue is the key to Ömer's character: articulate and clever, but utterly without will — he frames his own passivity as a law of philosophical 'inertia' rather than a personal failing. Sabahattin Ali draws this inner contradiction — a young man who thinks deeply but accomplishes nothing — as an emblem of 1940s Istanbul's intellectual class.
Nihat, apparently used to his friend's 'big words,' steers the conversation toward something practical: finding money for an evening of rakı. Ömer explains, in a plain, almost indifferent tone, that he works in accounting, filling ledgers all day — a sharp contrast to his philosophical outburst moments earlier, and a deft demonstration of the young protagonist's inner fragmentation.
As the ferry nears the dock, Ömer suddenly goes still — his eyes fixed on one of the benches across the deck, cut off from everything around him. When Nihat looks over in surprise, he sees his friend staring at a young woman with curly hair and a strong-willed jaw, carrying a thick folder of sheet music — the character we later learn is named Macide.
Ömer's reaction to her is less a plausible infatuation than an almost mystical sense of recognition — he says she feels like someone he's known 'since before the world was made,' and describes the possibility of never seeing her again as tantamount to 'death.' This sudden, inexplicable emotional outburst directly contradicts his earlier cold nihilism, and sets up the novel's central psychological question: is this man ruled by his feelings, or by his 'devil'?
- A dialogue-heavy, conversational prose style that vividly captures the everyday speech of 1940s Istanbul's intellectual youth
- Sabahattin Ali blends interior monologue directly into speech, letting Ömer's philosophical tirades stand as the character's own voice, without authorial commentary
- The novel is part of a "Complete Works" series in its Turkish edition — Yapı Kredi Yayınları publishes all of Sabahattin Ali's works in a unified design
The same author's internationally acclaimed novel, with similar themes of urban love and loneliness
Another classic take on the weak-willed anti-hero who blames his failures on an inner "devil" or lack of will
Short answer: money trouble drives Ömer to blackmail the cashier into handing over money, and he is then arrested along with Nihat's group. On the day he is released he tells Bedri that he will leave Macide and everyone else and try a new life alone. Macide, for her part, had decided to leave earlier; she hands her letter to Bedri and says, «But we have to wait... a long time!»
In the weeks after the marriage the salary runs out, and Ömer increasingly becomes a plaything of his fears and wants. One evening, in a Beyoğlu department store, he lets a woman's stocking vanish into his palm, runs off in panic, hurls it onto a garden wall and collapses. At home he looks at Macide with suspicion. Then Nihat comes, asks for money for the «cause» and proposes squeezing the cashier. Ömer brushes it off at first, but the idea sticks.
At the music garden, Ömer and Macide run into Bedri, Macide's former music teacher in Balıkesir, who plays piano there at night. Seeing the couple's need, he starts helping them with money. One evening Ömer arrives in a wretched state and throws Bedri out, then goes to apologise. That same day Bedri's sister comes to Macide, blames them and lists what she heard at Macide's aunt's house; Macide faints. That night Ömer confesses that he blackmailed the cashier that day and took 250 lira. The cashier was already preparing to flee and handed it over, saying «don't tell anyone». Ömer pushed the money under Nihat's door.
Then they all go to a charity society's evening show. The «intellectuals» appear there — Professor Hikmet, the writer İsmet Şerif, the poet Emin Kâmil and Hüseyin Bey; Bedri quietly explains their lack of any real selfhood and Nihat's «cult of force». After the show the group moves on to bars and to Büyükdere. Ömer gets drunk with his old classmate Ümit, while Macide drinks and grows indifferent. İsmet Şerif tries to corner her in the lavatory and she pushes him away; a drunken Hikmet tries to touch her. Ömer cannot snub Hikmet because he owes him ten or twelve lira. The next day Macide sees a man who looks like Ömer go into a cinema with a woman, and writes her farewell letter.
Before she finishes it, Bedri arrives with the news: Ömer was arrested as he left work, together with Nihat and most of the young men around him, while Professor Hikmet slipped away. By Bedri's account, the group had drawn up lists for another state, money had been swindled, and a few young men who got no share exposed it. Macide visits Ömer in detention twice a week with Bedri. On the day he is to be released, Ömer tells Bedri that he has taken stock of himself — «there's no devil inside us, there is weakness and laziness» — that he has torn up the marriage papers and keeps only Macide's small photo, and that he entrusts Macide to Bedri. Then he goes down toward the sea. As Macide and Bedri walk, Ömer catches up behind them, turns back and vanishes; Macide says she had already decided, and hands the letter to Bedri.
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