Review: Secret Dreams in Istanbul, Nermin Yıldırım
By Luke Frostick
Secret Dreams in Istanbul is a book about trauma and the legacy of abuse being passed down through families. It takes a deep dive into the tragedies that lurk inside Turkish society and does not give the reader much of a change to come up for breath.
The story follows Pilar, a Spanish woman married to a Turkish man Eyup. One day she finds that Eyup has disappeared; a clue pointing towards a return to Istanbul. In desperation, she gets in touch with his estranged family and sets out to meet them in the hope that they are going to be able to find Eyup.
From there the narration switches between the various members of the family giving their perspectives on Eyup’s disappearance, the arrival of a foreigner in their midst, and the dark secrets within their family bubble up to the surfaces. The narrative takes long detours into the backstories and histories of the characters and the events that lead up to Eyup’s disappearance and perhaps the reasons he abandoned them in the first place.
The book is a clear-sighted look at domestic abuse, violence against women and rape within families which are, tragically, endemic issues within Turkey and ones that seem to be actively getting worse. In that context, it is really important to see a novelist writing about these issues and exploring their roots. It engages with these topics without sensationalising them nor shying away from them. There are some devastating details throughout the book that can and should really unsettle the reader.
The prose are fine, a bit overwritten in some places but they do the job. It is an overwhelmingly grim book. Of course one could make the case that when dealing with such heavy topics, a serious tone is important and that there is no place for brevity. However, other writers such as Latife Tekin or Ayfer Tunç have been able to engage with similar themes while maintaining a dark sense of humour. The juxtaposition of humour and horror in their books creates a powerful contrast that is absent in Secret Dreams in Istanbul.
The translation was by Ümit Hussein who, as always, has done an admirable job brining Yıldırım’s work to life.
As an exploration of societal and familial problems within Turkey, it is a powerful book. However, the narrative is weaker than the themes it is trying to engage with. The plot is somewhat predictable. I had guessed what the dark secret the characters dance around by about the midpoint of the book. Moreover, a couple of swerves in the plot feel somewhat contrived.
I suppose that plot isn’t the central reason for the book’s existence. The characters’ studies are the meat of the novel. This aspect is much stronger, everybody in the book is well-realised. There are some extremely flawed characters, abusers and abused, but they feel fully developed and the book has the ability to show how even the monstrous characters in the story have inter lives, traumas, and justifications for acting the way that they do. By digging in deep into the psychology of the characters and their internal lives, the reader gains a picture of how cycles of abuses get perpetuated.
While the narrative and the style could have been stronger, Secret Dreams in Istanbul is still an important book for its characters and its earnest attempt to wrestle with some really important issues in modern Turkish society. I hope that more books by Yildirim are published going forward.
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