Madonna in a Fur Coat

A clerk hired out of pity by a firm in Ankara shares an office with Raif efendi, a self-effacing translator nobody knows. When the older man falls ill, he hands over a black notebook that tells a different story: Berlin in the 1920s, and a woman's portrait seen in a gallery. The painter, Maria Puder, recognises him, and something begins between them that fits no convention. The novel explores love, shyness and what a life keeps of a single encounter. Sabahattin Ali packs a great passion into a dull existence, told with striking restraint.