Tutunamayanlar (The Losers)

This novel has been selected by the Turkish National Commission for UNESCO

The young engineer Turgut Özben investigates the reasons behind his close friend Selim Işik’s suicide. People close to Selim Işik pool their knowledge to shed light on the unknown aspects of his life. In his last days, Selim was assembling an “encyclopedia of losers” wherein he had reserved an entry for himself. The encyclopedia proves helpful in revealing self-knowledge to Turgut Özben. In the course of his investigation: he too is a loser, or a perennial nobody; to date he has been going through the motions of habit and ritual.  He makes a clean break, leaves home, and boards a train never to be seen again.