Dilara lives in modern day Italy. She and her family are exiled from Turkey, largely because of the authoritarian regime of Recep Tayyip

Erdoğan who has reordered society along religious lines. When Dilara becomes aware that her father is suffering from dementia, she persuades him to move in with her. To that end, she hires some builders to adapt her apartment to meet his needs including a new ensuite bathroom. The builders seem unduly secretive about their work and when they finish and leave, Dilara finds that instead of a bathroom they’ve installed a Turkish prison cell – a cell that opens out into an infamous Istanbul prison. Yep – hello, magic realism. At this point the author then plays it straight, the outraged Dilara trying and failing to contact the builders. Dilara then gradually spends more time in the cell, and even begins to converse with the other inmates – many there because of Erdoğan’s sundry crackdowns. It's rare for a debut author to pull off a novel that is as surreal as it is grounded, and the Kafkaesque rug-pulls here are deployed to dissect the absurdity of authoritarianism. ‘The Renovation’ is also an intimate family saga, with Dilara’s efforts to reach her father mirrored by her attempts to recreate, in her mind, an Istanbul she once loved. Kenan Orhan brings an incredible sensitivity to this material, and his prose – at once evocative and sensory – makes the more bizarre elements feel entirely earned. The result is a bravura piece of work that is bold and inventive throughout: a love letter to the collective stories we inhabit that make up a life. RM

Published by 

Hamish Hamilton