Publisher's Synopsis
'An important and radical new literary voice' Elif Batuman
'Bold and original' - Sanaë Lemoine, author of THE MARGOT AFFAIR
'An exceptional novel' - Joyelle McSweeney, author of TOXICON AND ARACHNE
It's 2017 and Leyla, a leftwing Turkish twenty-something living in Berlin, is scrubbing toilets at an Alice in Wonderland-themed hostel in order to stay afloat while awaiting a verdict on her visa status. Having failed her master's thesis and sued the German university over its decision, she is on the verge of losing her student visa and being forced to return to Istanbul, a city she thought she'd left behind for good.
As the clock winds down on her temporary visa, Leyla meets a right-wing Swedish tourist at a bar one night and, against her better judgment, begins to fall in love. Will she choose to live a cookie-cutter life as the wife of a Volvo salesman, or just as unimaginable, return to Turkey to her mother and sister, codependent and enmeshed, the ghost of her father still haunting their lives?
In her debut novel, Koca radically and courageously explores one's place in a deeply uncertain world. The Applicant is a stunning dissection of a liminal life lived between borders and identities.
