From Afar I Saw a Stranger

A haunting, psychologically precise novel of desire from the author of the NBCC-longlisted The Anthropologists (A Barack Obama 2024 selection)

A nameless magazine journalist travels to Mexico City to report on a major archaeological discovery: a cache of ancient offerings—Mayan masks—that may reshape our understanding of the past. But in her personal life, little feels stable. Recently separated from her husband, she moves through Mexico City with a growing sense of disconnection, untethered from the rhythms that once defined her.

Amid her reporting, she leaves for a small town outside the city to stay with an acquaintance of her estranged husband. What begins as a temporary escape gradually deepens into something more uncertain, and she drifts into an affair with a local bar owner. As days pass, the further she moves from her former life, the less certain she becomes of what, if anything, might replace it.

With remarkable restraint, Savaş traces the subtle shifts that accompany emotional upheaval. The result is a novel attuned to the smallest details—gestures, silences, fleeting impressions—through which larger questions emerge. What does it mean to belong, in a world where the familiar can no longer be relied upon? How do we locate ourselves when the narratives that once anchored us begin to dissolve? From Afar I Saw a Stranger is a meditation on the masks we wear, for whom we wear them, and what they ultimately conceal.