2023-11-17
A young woman spending the summer in Turkey becomes entangled with a man from her mother’s past.
“Turkey is, without a doubt, the most beautiful country in the world,” says 19-year-old Ada. She would know: She’s spent every summer there since she was a young child, returning with her Turkish mother, Meltem, to visit her grandmother in a sleepy seaside town, and leaving behind Ada’s father, a successful Silicon Valley tech worker. Though these holidays aren’t exactly idyllic—there’s always tension between Ada’s controlling grandmother and “stoic,” depression-prone Meltem—this summer is particularly fraught. Ada’s father has disclosed an affair, and Meltem is using the time away to decide the marriage’s future. When Levent, an ex-flame of Meltem’s, pops up in town, Ada thinks it could be the perfect chance to matchmake; she’s rooting for her melancholy mother to embrace the life Ada suspects she’s always wished for in Turkey. “It suddenly becomes very important to me that she fall in love with this man, that she reclaim the precision of her vocabulary,” declares Ada. To Ada’s surprise, though, she’s the one who develops feelings for Levent, and her attempts to reach into her mother’s past to alter her future may end up altering Ada’s own irrevocably. In this, her debut, Atrek writes keenly of the liminality of the first-generation American—though Ada is confident and headstrong, her American life with her American boyfriend never seems to fit her, but neither does Turkey, where the language never rolls off her tongue perfectly and cultural touchstones sometimes bewilder her. Despite the collisions of all the characters’ longings, this is a book full of pleasures: Turkish food, the sparkling Aegean, the laze of late summer, and, ultimately, of the difficult mysteries of mothers and daughters.
An elegant portrayal of the overlap between mothers and motherlands.
A Publishers Lunch Buzz Book Selection • An IndieNext Pick for January 2024
"A beautiful novel from a promising new voice." —Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot and Either/Or
"Impressively original, exceptionally well crafted, thoroughly absorbing, and a memorable read from start to finish..." —Wisconsin Bookwatch
"A summer romance is the backbone of Atrek’s plot, but she unravels that trope and breathes fresh life into while also exploring family secrets and identity, and the different worlds we can inhabit at the same time. Atrek’s prose is lush and is a pitch-perfect match with the sensuality of the plot." —Adam Vitcavage, Debutiful
"This is a book full of pleasures: Turkish food, the sparkling Aegean, the laze of late summer, and, ultimately, of the difficult mysteries of mothers and daughters." —Kirkus
"Atrek’s debut is immersive and sensual; readers will feel as if they’re truly on the gorgeous beaches with Ada." —Booklist, starred review
"With a setting that comes through beautifully in Atrek’s writing, Holiday Country is tender, well-written and filled with just the right amount of twists and turns." —BookPage
"Atrek gloriously portrays the seaside setting, and she expertly explores the crackling tension between mother and daughter. This finely rendered debut heralds the arrival of a smart, bold voice." —Publishers Weekly
“İnci Atrek's mesmerizing Holiday Country is sizzling with the heat and hurt of young adulthood, brimming over with all of the associated desires: to explore, to feel seen, to belong, and, of course, the impossible wish to turn back the hands of time. With beautiful prose that transports you to the seaside town along the Aegean Sea where young Ada spends her summers, Atrek fully entangles you into the generation-long drama overdue to unravel. This book is full of wisdom and insights about mothers, daughters, and the men who surround them and it smolders as we watch Ada do the unavoidable: become her own person.” —Xochitl Gonzalez, New York Times bestselling author of Olga Dies Dreaming
"A piercing and wise novel, Holiday Country asks vital questions on identity, autonomy, fantasy, and how we may radically reimagine daughterhood and the places we come from. İnci Atrek masterfully threads a needle right through the eye of desire and duty with this spectacular book; you will be equal parts unmoored and moved long after you finish reading." —Mina Seçkin, author of The Four Humors
"Holiday Country is a gorgeous exploration of the wonder and potency of girlhood. İnci Atrek is sharp on the difficult conjunctions between desire and lineage." —Raven Leilani, New York Times bestselling author of Luster
"İnci Atrek is a tender, lush, and bold storyteller. Holiday Country is an expansive page-turner that makes the reader feel the sand, salt, and love surrounding Ada and the women who have shaped her on every page." —Nazlı Koca, author of The Applicant
"A hypnotizing and beautiful book about a young woman caught between languages and cultures, and aching to become whole, Holiday Country is painfully honest and wrenching about how desire eclipses reason. I was wholly entranced by the blistering sunshine and salt of the Aegean, by Ada's propulsive yearning to rewrite history and orchestrate her own fate, and frequently held my breath as I read. İnci Atrek has written a fiercely original and transporting coming-of-age novel with swoon-worthy prose and an unforgettable heroine." —Caitlin Barasch, author of A Novel Obsession
“Holiday Country is a gorgeous and poignant bildungsroman of womanhood, motherhood, identity, and the nuances that stitch them together set against the resplendent Aegean Coast. A book to keep close to your chest in the cold months ahead.” —Lauren Abesames, Wind City Books, Casper, WY
