Strangeness in my mind

Author's name: Orhan Pamuk

In the four decades between 1969 and 2012, Mevlut worked a variety of jobs on the streets of Istanbul, from selling yogurt and cooked rice to guarding a parking lot. He observes people of all shapes and personalities as they pass through the streets, witnesses the destruction and rebuilding of the city, and witnesses immigrants from Anatolia making fortunes. At the same time, he witnesses all the important turning points in the city's history: the political conflicts and military coups that shape the country. Mevlut always wonders what makes him different from others, the source of the strangeness that nests in his mind, but he never stops selling ice cream on winter nights and trying to understand who his beloved is. What matters more in love: what we wish for, or what fate has in store for us? Do our choices force happiness or unhappiness upon us, or are all these things determined by forces greater than ourselves? The novel "A Strangeness in My Mind" attempts to answer these questions as it depicts the tension between urban life and family life, and the anger and powerlessness of women inside their homes.