City Light Publishers Presents MOTHERLAND HOTEL By Yusuf Atilgan

"Motherland Hotel is a startling masterpiece, a perfect existential nightmare, the portrait of a soul lost on the threshold of an ever-postponed Eden."-Alberto Manguel

Motherland Hotel was hailed as the novel of the year in Turkey when it was published in 1973, astonishing critics with its experimental style, its intense psychological depth and its audacious description of sexual obsession. Zeberjet, the main character, was compared to such memorable characters as Quentin Compson in Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and Meursault in Albert Camus' The Stranger. While author Yusuf At?lgan had already achieved considerable literary fame, Motherland Hotel cemented his reputation as one of Turkey's premier modernists.

"My heroes are Ahmet Hamdi Tanp?nar, O?uz Atay, and Yusuf At?lgan. I have become a novelist by following their footsteps . . . I love Yusuf At?lgan; he manages to remain local although he benefits from Faulkner's works and the Western traditions."-Orhan Pamuk

"This moving and unsettling portrait of obsession run amok might have been written in 1970s Turkey, when social mores after Ataturk were still evolving, but it stays as relevant as the country struggles to save the very democratic ideals on which the Republic was rebirthed."-Poornima Apte, Booklist, Starred Review

"An unsettling study of a mind, steeped in violence, dropping off the edge of reason."-Kirkus Reviews

". . . as Zeberjet becomes increasingly unhinged, we're drawn into his dark interior life while coming to understand Turkey's post-­Ottoman uncertainty. Sophisticated readers will understand why At?lgan is called the father of Turkish modernism, while those who enjoy dark psychological novels can also appreciate."-Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal

"Yusuf At?lgan, like Patrick Modiano, demonstrates how the everyday can reflect larger passions and catastrophes. Beautifully written and translated, Motherland Hotel can finally find the wider audience in the west that it deserves."
-Susan Daitch, author of The Lost Civilization of Suolucidir

"Motherland Hotel is an absolute gem of Turkish literature."-Esmahan Aykol, author of Divorce Turkish Style

"The freedom that At?lgan articulates isn't the freedom of Lord Byron or Milton Friedman. It's more like the sense of freedom that comes with finally having a diagnoses. It's the freedom that comes from understanding that you're imprisoned in other people's' ideas of freedom. But there's a consolation and a quiet wisdom that comes from understanding that these definitions will pass in turn, like guests checking out of a hotel."-Scott Beauchamp, Full Stop