Silent House — Orhan Pamuk

In an old mansion in Cennethisar a former fishing village near Istanbul an old widow Fatma awaits the annual summer visit of her grandchildren She has lived in the village for decades ever since her husband an idealistic young doctor first arrived to serve the poor fishermen Now mostly bedridden she is attended by her faithful servant Recep a dwarf and the doctors illegitimate son They share memories and grievances of the early years before Cennethisar became a high class resort Her visiting grandchildren are Faruk a dissipated failed historian his sensitive leftist sister Nilgun and Metin a high school student drawn to the fast life of the nouveaux riches who dreams of going to America But it is Receps nephew Hassan a high school dropout lately fallen in with right wing nationalists who will draw the visiting family into the growing political cataclysm issuing from Turkeys tumultuous century long struggle for modernity