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The Highly Unreliable Account of the Brief History of a Madhouse is an ever-expanding novel that moves at a dizzying pace. A literary panorama of Turkey that defies boundaries spatial or temporal: one end in the 19th century, and the other in the 21st. A book of 'human landscapes' that startles anew with a completely unexpected turn of events, immediately after deceiving the reader into thinking the end of a plot line might be in sight.
The novel starts in a small-town mental asylum with its back to the Black Sea, and weaves its way through a highly entertaining chain of interlinked lives, each link a complex and bewildering personality. The Highly Unreliable Account... follows the trails of political and social milestones left on individual lives across a span of nearly a century.
About the author
Story writer and novelist Ayfer Tunç - is one of the most respected and widely read authors in Turkish literature - broke onto the literary scene with her first short story book, The Yore Hotel, which was highly praised by both the literary circles and readers. She started working as a journalist in 1989 and then as Editor-in-Chief at Yap¿ Kredi Publishing House between 1999-2004. Apart from her novels, she has also written many screenplays. Tunç's work is concerned with virtues of being a lonely city dweller and a human being, with deep insight into the tribulations of living in contemporary Turkey. With her book My Parents Will Visit You If You Don't Mind: Our Life, she won the international Balkanika Literary Award in 2003. The same year her screenplay Cloud in the Sky, inspired by Sait Faik's short stories, was filmed and televised. The book was translated into six Balkan languages, along with the collection, The Aziz Bey Incident. The novels The Night of the Green Fairy and The Highly Unreliable Account of the History of a Madhouse remain her bestsellers. She has also co-authored a non-fiction study named Two Faced Sexuality with Oya Ayman.
Summary
Queries the concept of six degrees of separation as it relates dozens of tales, some entertaining, others unpredictable or tragic. She weaves her way through an amusing chain of interlinked lives and complex personalities connected by insanity (manifest or latent).Old sins do indeed cast long shadows.
