A Once-Forgotten Novel Unites Turkish Readers in Troubled Times<br />The parallels between what he endured as a dissident intellectual<br />and the ordeals faced by modern Turkish writers arrested for speaking out against the current Islamist government help explain Mr. Ali’s newfound popularity among the Turkish public.<br />Sevengul Sonmez, an editor and literary historian, said<br />that Turkish readers who love "Romeo and Juliet" are "now reading Maria and Raif, as the modern impossible love story." "We needed a classic as well," she said.<br />But now, all at once, the doors had flown open." That is the basis of "Madonna in a Fur Coat," a once-forgotten Turkish novel written nearly 75 years ago<br />that has improbably become a best seller, outselling, these days, even Orhan Pamuk, Turkey’s Nobel laureate.<br />Kaya Genc, a young Turkish novelist and writer, quoted Susan Sontag, the critic, when asked about "Madonna’s" resonance: "What is most beautiful in virile men is something<br />feminine; what is most beautiful in feminine women is something masculine." "This applies perfectly to Sabahattin Ali’s ‘Madonna in a Fur Coat,’" he said.<br />‘Madonna in a Fur Coat’ finally emerged as the common ground." If one can glean insights into a society from the books its citizens read, then one thing the popularity of "Madonna"<br />may underscore about Turkey is the eagerness, among the country’s youth, to break free of the traditional gender roles and machismo pushed by Turkey’s leader, Mr. Erdogan.<br />English translated that It is read, loved and wept over by men and women of all ages, but most of all by young adults,
