Walking on the Ceiling

A Novel

By: Aysegül Savas

Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò

"[Savaş] writes with both sensuality and coolness, as if determined to find a rational explanation for the irrationality of existence..." -- The New York Times

"I fell in love with this book." -- Katie Kitamura, author of A Separation

A mesmerizing novel set in Paris and a changing Istanbul, about a young Turkish woman grappling with her past and her complicated relationship with a famous British writer.

After her mother's death, Nunu moves from Istanbul to a small apartment in Paris. One day outside of a bookstore, she meets M., an older British writer whose novels about Istanbul Nunu has always admired. They find themselves walking the streets of Paris and talking late into the night. What follows is an unusual friendship of eccentric correspondence and long walks around the city.

M. is working on a new novel set in Turkey and Nunu tells him about her family, hoping to impress and inspire him. She recounts the idyllic landscapes of her past, mythical family meals, and her elaborate childhood games. As she does so, she also begins to confront her mother's silence and anger, her father's death, and the growing unrest in Istanbul. Their intimacy deepens, so does Nunu's fear of revealing too much to M. and of giving too much of herself and her Istanbul away. Most of all, she fears that she will have to face her own guilt about her mother and the narratives she's told to protect herself from her memories.

A wise and unguarded glimpse into a young woman's coming into her own, Walking on the Ceiling is about memory, the pleasure of invention, and those places, real and imagined, we can't escape.

Mothers daughters, Istanbul and Paris

A short novel about youth and relationship between mother and daughter. Taking place in Istanbul and Paris, giving an insight in the life of a young woman Nunu and her way to find out the mixture of her past

Fantastic book!

Fascinating book. Includes great descriptions of contemporary istanbul as well as the ups and downs the city went through in the past two decades. I don’t know how much of a Parisienne Aysegul Savas is, but she most certainly is a true Istanbulite - istanbullu. Able to describe not only landmarks and neighborhoods but also how to enjoy them, down to the type of wish you order for Sunday lunch. She doesn’t hold back from describing the city’s recent uncontrollable growth either, the concrete mushrooms of buildings that sprout, the dwindling hopes of many istanbulites for the future. They are all here in this wonderful book.

I wouldn’t mind staying in 90 minutes of istanbul traffic and get to the “other side” in a non-air conditioned taxi just to be able to walk the streets of Moda or perhaps Yenikoy and talk with Aysegul Savas, the way the narrator talks with her friend M walking through the parks of Paris.

Lovely but ultimately not that interesting

The prose and delivery are lovely and wistful. The paint a picture and a(n inner) world and a sense of melancholic regret. But ultimately the book was more atmospheric than anything else. I think as a straight memoir it may have been more revelatory rather than assuming the pretense of a novel.