Madonna in a Fur Coat

The legendary Turkish writer Sabahattin Ali became a belated, triumphant discovery for European literature. In his work he revealed problems of relationships between cultures and ethnic groups through the example of ordinary people—and quickly won over the literary bohemia.

«Madonna in a Fur Coat» is a piercing “remark-like” love story of Raif Efendi, the scion of a wealthy Ottoman family who, by the will of fate, became a minor clerk, and a German painter named Maria. The novel’s events unfold in the 1920s in Berlin and Ankara, and its atmosphere is close to the pre-war novels of Erich Maria Remarque.

A significant part of the novel is the story of Raif Efendi’s life in Turkey and Germany, the twists and turns of his love for the German painter Maria Puder, his spiritual searches, and inner torments. His life in Europe runs against the backdrop of Germany of the post-First World War defeat—masterfully depicted.