Holiday Country
A Novel
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A seductive and lyrical debut following a young woman’s dangerous summer romance during an idyllic vacation on the Aegean coast
"A gorgeous exploration." —Raven Leilani, author of Luster
"A beautiful novel from a promising new voice." ―Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot and Either/Or
Ada always looks forward to her summers at the family villa with her mother and grandmother in a Turkish seaside town. It’s easy to leave life in California behind when the days are filled with boat rides, games at the beach, and long swims with friends. But no matter how much Ada feels she belongs in the country where her mother grew up, deep down, her connection to the culture seems as fleeting as the seasons. It’s certainly no help that her mother has lost her own sense of self, rootless and disoriented after so many years abroad.
When an old family friend mysteriously shows up in their town, Ada can’t help imagining a different future for her mother―one that promises a return to home, to love, to happiness. But while playing matchmaker, Ada has to come to terms with her own intensifying attraction to the newcomer. Does the future she’s fighting for belong to her mother—or to her alone?
Lush and evocative, İnci Atrek’s Holiday Country is a rapturous meditation about what it means to be of two worlds, the limitations and freedom of a life in translation, and the alluring promise of love’s anchor for the unmoored.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Set in a sultry village on Turkey’s picturesque Aegean coast, this dramatic debut explores love, family, and missed opportunities. California-raised teenager Ada spends every summer visiting her Turkish grandmother with her mother, who seems to regret leaving her homeland for America. When Ada meets Levent, a mysterious older man, she embarks on a quest to discover what her mother was like as a young woman—and finds herself falling for her mother’s former flame. Turkish American author İnci Atrek writes lyrically about the complexities of mother-daughter relationships and how personal identity is tied to one’s homeland. Her rich, sensuous depictions of everyday life on the Turkish coast make Holiday Country feel like a wonderful vacation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A young Turkish American woman comes of age during an annual visit to her family's Aegean villa in Atrek's engrossing debut. Ada, 19, and her mother, Meltem, are spending the summer with Ada's grandmother, where Ada delights each year in shedding her California skin and the days are delineated mostly by her deepening tan. This year, however, her parents' marriage is on the brink of collapse, prompting Ada to consider her mother anew. She worries, for one thing, that Meltem's divided nationalities have dulled her personality ("How easily language can slip away after years abroad.... Just one more thing my father has taken from her," Ada thinks as she listens to her mother fumble in her native Turkish). When Ada meets Levent, a handsome former lover of Meltem's from her younger years in Istanbul, she tries to nudge them into an affair, believing it would restore the shine of Meltem's youth. Nothing happens between them, though, and after Levent announces he's returning to Istanbul, Ada, by now interested in pursuing her own romance with him, schemes a way to join him. This development strains credulity, and the story gallops toward a scandalous if too-tidy conclusion. Still, Atrek gloriously portrays the seaside setting, and she expertly explores the crackling tension between mother and daughter. This finely rendered debut heralds the arrival of a smart, bold voice.
