Novel
Falling Leaves
Yaprak Dökümü
Reşat Nuri Güntekin · 1930
Synopsis
Ali Rıza Bey, a former provincial governor of strict principles, lives in Istanbul with his wife, Hayriye, and their five children, Şevket, Fikret, Leyla, Necla and Ayşe. He leaves the company where he worked, ashamed of a scandal between an employee and the director, and the family loses its income. His son Şevket, who has joined a bank, becomes the household's support and marries Ferhunde, a married woman with whom he had fallen in love; she takes the house in hand and holds receptions and balls there. Expenses rise, money is borrowed against the house, and the father's authority crumbles.
Context
The novel dates from 1930, the year given by the Diyanet encyclopaedia and M. Fatih Kanter's study, which sees it as the first edition in volume form; the Humanities Institute speaks of a serial of 1930 and a book of 1941. The company the father leaves is called Altın Yaprak, the Golden Leaf, according to Kanter and the Humanities Institute. The BnF holds a fifth edition of 1944 and a sixth of 1958. W. D. Halsey translated it into English under the title Falling Leaves.
Who it is for
A novel in Turkish, translated into English but not into French, in which a family's ruin unfolds step by step.
Prizes and reception
The author also made a play from it, according to M. Fatih Kanter; an English translation appeared in 2013.
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The pages consulted to check this page.