A Strange Woman

Leylâ Erbil author Nermin Menemencioğlu translator Amy Marie Spangler translator

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Deep Vellum Publishing

Published:9th Jun '22

£14.00

Available to order, but very limited on stock - if we have issues obtaining a copy, we will let you know.

A Strange Woman cover

Serial rights targeting The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Literary Hub, Guernica, and others Print and digital publicity targeting NPR, The Atlantic, Public Books, The Rumpus, Bookforum, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, The White Review, Words Without Borders, World Literature Today, Asymptote, Music & Literature, Little Star, A Public Space, and others Promotion at Texas Book Festival, Brooklyn Book Festival, National Book Festival, Winter Institute Review copies will be sent targeting all major print and digital literary media outlets, reviewers, and booksellers; additional copies available upon request Promotion on the publisher’s website (deepvellum.org), Twitter feed (@deepvellum), and Facebook page (/deepvellum); and publisher’s e-newsletter

In English at last, Leylâ Erbil’s earth-shattering, feminist debut: the first novel by a Turkish woman to ever be nominated for the Nobel.

The pioneering debut novel by one of Turkey’s most radical authors, originally published in the 1970s, tells the story of an aspiring intellectual in a complex, modernizing country.


Erbil’s groundbreaking coming-of-age novel, nominated for the Nobel upon original release, follows a young woman and aspiring poet in Turkey. Nermin frequents Istanbul’s coffeehouses and underground readings, but is torn between the creative, anarchist youth culture of Turkey’s capital and her parents, members of the old cultural guard who are wary of Nermin’s turn toward secularism.


In four parts, A Strange Woman narrates the past and present of a complicated Turkish family through the eyes of each of its members. This rebellious, avant-garde novel tackles sexuality, psychology, and history through the lens of a modernizing 20th-century Turkey. Deep Vellum brings this long-awaited translation of the debut novel by a trailblazing feminist voice to US readers.

“How odd that a writer who first started making her mark in 1956 should remain a pioneer still today… How odd that, even after half a century, no writer capable of surpassing her has yet appeared." ––Mahmut Temisyurek, award-winning poet “ Leylâ Erbil is a consummate literary artist.” ––Turkish National Committee for UNESCO "Complex but fascinating." ––The Modern Novel

ISBN: 9781646051489

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

196 pages