by Kenan Orhan
First published 2026
Dilara lives in Salerno, Italy, caring for her aging father and hypochondriac husband. Since leaving Istanbul, she cannot find work. She focuses on renovating a second bathroom in their home. When construction finishes, she opens the door and steps into a Turkish prison cell instead of the bathroom she expected. Buffoonish guards refuse to believe her predicament. Other women fill neighboring cells. The Bosporus drifts through the air along with her mother's voice and calls to prayer. Dilara tries to hide this impossible situation from her husband while questioning her sanity. Is this madness, a cruel joke, or something else entirely? As she spends more time in the cell, her life outside crumbles. Her husband vanishes. Her father loses his grip on reality. Political dictatorship threatens everything she values. The cell becomes both prison and refuge as two worlds collide in ways that force Dilara to confront her displacement and grief.
Genres: fiction, contemporary, magical-realism, psychological-thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Istanbul, Italy, Salerno, Turkey
Period: contemporary
256 pages · Hardcover · Farrar, Straus and Giroux