Escape

“There are questions like that. Questions that must never be asked. Subjects that must never be brought up.”

Time passes slowly in the hotel rooms. This is what the daughter thinks. They’ve been moving since the beginning, in and out of hotels, sometimes staying for months, sometimes for a mere hour, but never with luggage, heavy things weighing them down. The mother and daughter are singular, a “Moon Unit,” revolving so far away that no one can touch them. They form attachments to no one, not the pool boy who watches the daughter swim for hours, nor the girl at the front desk who counts the moments she sees the daughter as little good luck charms for her day. They are bound together with a secret language, the beautiful girl loved solely by her mother, who will never ever ever leave her side.

Prize-winning Turkish novelist and journalist Perihan Magden delivers a heartbreaking meditation on the intense and sometimes isolated love between a mother and daughter against the world.

Born in Istanbul, Perihan Magden has written novels, poetry, and a column in Turkey’s national daily newspaper, Radikal. She is the author of three novels currently available in English: Escape, Messenger Boy Murders, and 2 Girls. 2 Girls was made into a film by director Kutlug Ataman and premiered at the 2005 London Film Festival. Magden’s novels have been translated into eighteen languages, including German, French, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, and Dutch. She is an honorary member of British PEN and winner of the Grand Award for Freedom of Speech by the Turkish Publishers Association.