The Applicant
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
WINNER OF THE COLORADO BOOK AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL
A singular debut from “an important and radical new literary voice” (Elif Batuman), The Applicant explores with wit and brevity what it means to be an immigrant, woman, and emerging writer
It’s 2017 and Leyla, a Turkish twenty-something living in Berlin is scrubbing toilets at an Alice in Wonderland-themed hostel after failing her thesis, losing her student visa, and suing her German university in a Kafkaesque attempt to reverse her failure.
Increasingly distant from what used to be at arm’s reach—writerly ambitions, tight knit friendships, a place to call home—Leyla attempts to find solace in the techno beats of Berlin’s nightlife, with little success. Right as the clock winds down on the hold on her visa, Leyla meets a conservative Swedish tourist and—against her political convictions and better judgment—begins to fall in love, or something like it. Will she accept an IKEA life with the Volvo salesman and relinquish her creative dreams, or return to Turkey to her mother and sister, codependent and enmeshed, her father’s ghost still haunting their lives?
While she waits for the German court’s verdict on her future, in the pages of her diary, Leyla begins to parse her unresolved past and untenable present. An indelible character at once precocious and imperiled, Leyla gives voice to the working-class and immigrant struggle to find safety, self-expression, and happiness. The Applicant is an extraordinary dissection of a liminal life between borders and identities, an original and darkly funny debut.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Koca's kinetic debut follows the struggles of a failed graduate student from Turkey in 2017 Berlin. Leyla, 26, lives in a state of limbo after her thesis was declared not "academic enough." In response, she filed a lawsuit against the university, and while waiting for a verdict, she works as a cleaner at a trendy hostel, writes in her diary, and worries about being sent back to Turkey. (Off days are spent drinking and snorting ketamine.) Leyla also wants to be a writer, and at the suggestion of friends, she considers turning her diary into a series of performances and a memoir. Meanwhile, she hooks up with a Swedish lover and begins to fall for him, frequently traveling to Gothenburg to spend time together. Koca is at her best when focusing on Leyla's everyday experiences; she does a good job blending the mundane details (diary entries parse the plots of Turkish soap operas and tally the "treasures" Leyla finds left behind at the hostel) and nightlife exploits, but as Leyla's star as a performer rises and her lawsuit verdict nears, the narrative wobbles as it rushes to its unbalanced ending. Leyla's a charismatic enough lead, but she's let down by the plotting.
