The Silent House

Each summer three siblings come reluctantly to visit their bitter old grandmother, in her dreary seaside home. Faruk, the eldest is alcoholic, recently divorced and adrift. Metin, the youngest is full of hunger, dreaming of escaping his family and studying in America. And in between them is their sister, Nilgün, a fiery youngs revolutionary, hurtling towards womanhood. Over the week, the family face first love, old ghosts and childhood memories. Watching them is the dwarf Recep, the housekeeper, who has stories of his own. Haunting, tender and acutely observed, Silent House is was published to great acclaim in Turkey in 1983 and remains one of Pamuk’s most popular works in the country. It was the author’s second novel and available in English for the first time.