Tutunamayanlar

Tutunamayanlar (lit. the ones who cannot hold on; in Eng. The Disconnected) is the first novel of Oguz Atay, one of the most prominent Turkish authors. It was written in 1970-71 and published in 1972. Although it was never reprinted in his lifetime and was controversial among critics, it has become a best-seller since a new edition came out in 1984. It has been described as “probably the most eminent novel of twentieth-century Turkish literature”[1]. This reference is due to a UNESCO survey, which goes on: “it poses an earnest challenge to even the most skilled translator with its kaleidoscope of colloquialisms and sheer size.” Two translation has been published thus far, into Dutch, as Het leven in stukken (Life in pieces), and into German, as Die Haltlosen(usually "unstable", "unsupported", but here a literal translation of the Turkish).An English translation by Sevin Seydi, as The Disconnected, has been published by Olric Press in 2017 (ISBN 978-0-9955543-0-6).The novel teases the well-established norms of the Turkish bourgeois world by a style which only "the disconnected" could empathize with. And in 2012, first edition of the book is being sold for pretty expensive prices up to almost 1000 lira (~430 €)