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Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali
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Madonna in a Fur Coat

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Narrator Philip Arditti

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Length 7 hours 6 minutes
Language English
Translators Maureen Freely & Alexander Dawe
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Brought to you by Penguin.

This Penguin Classic is performed by Philip Arditti, best known for The Danish Girl and Game of Thrones. This definitive recording includes an introduction by David Selim Sayers.

'It is, perhaps, easier to dismiss a man whose face gives no indication of an inner life. And what a pity that is: a dash of curiosity is all it takes to stumble upon treasures we never expected.'

A shy young man leaves his home in rural Turkey to learn a trade in 1920s Berlin. The city's crowded streets, thriving arts scene, passionate politics and seedy cabarets provide the backdrop for a chance meeting with a woman, which will haunt him for the rest of his life. Emotionally powerful, intensely atmospheric and touchingly profound, Madonna in a Fur Coat is an unforgettable novel about new beginnings and the unfathomable nature of the human soul.

'A heart-breaker . . . it has the kind of indefinably powerful impact of The Great Gatsby' Observer

'A miniature masterpiece' The National

'A gorgeously melancholic romance' Irish Times

ยฉ Sabahattin Ali 2016 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Sabahattin Ali (Author)
Sabahattin Ali (1907-1948) was born in the Ottoman town of Egridere (now Ardino in southern Bulgaria). A teacher, novelist, short-story writer and journalist, he owned and edited a popular weekly newspaper called Marko Pasa. He is admired for the determination with which he defended his political beliefs, which are anchored through his writing. Madonna in A Fur Coat, first published in 1943, is his best loved work and a touchstone of Turkish literary culture which continues to resonate profoundly with readers young and old today.

Maureen Freely (Translator)
Maureen Freely is a writer, a Professor at Warwick University, and the Chair of Trustees of English PEN. She has published seven novels and numerous translations of twentieth century Turkish classics and contemporary authors including five books by the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk.

Alexander Dawe (Translator)
Alexander Dawe has translated several works from French and Turkish including the short stories of Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar and Sait Faik.

Illustration of person sitting

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With credit bundles, you choose the number of credits and your recipient picks their audiobooks—all in support of local bookstores.

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Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks!

Nowโ€™s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโ€™ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

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Reviews

A tale of young love and disenchantment, of missed opportunities and passion's elusive, flickering flame . . . reminiscent of Turgenev's First Love, with a hero every bit as gauche, and a twist every bit as bitter The magical novel about a Turkish man who falls in love with an artist in 1920s Berlin ... recreates a vanished era and dramatises a doomed relationship, and does so with verve, depth and poignancy. The result is a miniature masterpiece. A heart-breaker . . . it has the kind of indefinably powerful impact of The Great Gatsby A poignant coming-of-age tale, drenched in disillusionment. The gap between hope and reality, art and ordinary life, has been explored in many other novels, but rarely with the unaffected simplicity of Madonna in a Fur Coat. Moving and memorable, full of yearning and melancholy ... reading it is like taking a literary minibreak A gorgeously melancholic romance . . . a cautionary tale certain to beguile The surprise bestseller ... read, loved and wept over by men and women of all ages Expand reviews
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