{"product_id":"walking-on-the-ceiling-9781398562271","title":"Walking on the Ceiling","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe mesmerizing debut novel by the author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Anthropologists\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e set in Paris and Istanbul, about a young Turkish woman grappling with her past and her complicated relationship with a famous British writer.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e‘Savas writes with both sensuality and coolness, as if determined to find a rational explanation for the irrationality of existence...’\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e New York Times\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘I fell in love with this book.’ \u003cb\u003eKatie Kitamura, author of\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e Audition \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eand \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Separation\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe mesmerizing debut novel by the author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Anthropologists\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e set in Paris and Istanbul, about a young Turkish woman grappling with her past and her complicated relationship with a famous British writer.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter her mother's death, Nunu moves from Istanbul to a small apartment in Paris. One day outside of a bookstore, she meets M., an older British writer whose novels about Istanbul Nunu has always admired. They find themselves walking the streets of Paris and talking late into the night. What follows is an unusual friendship of eccentric correspondence and long walks around the city.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eM. is working on a new novel set in Turkey and Nunu tells him about her family, hoping to impress and inspire him. She recounts the idyllic landscapes of her past, mythical family meals, and her elaborate childhood games. As she does so, she also begins to confront her mother's silence and anger, her father's death, and the growing unrest in Istanbul. Their intimacy deepens, so does Nunu's fear of revealing too much to M. and of giving too much of herself and her Istanbul away. Most of all, she fears that she will have to face her own guilt about her mother and the narratives she's told to protect herself from her memories.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA wise and unguarded glimpse into a young woman's coming into her own, \u003ci\u003eWalking on the Ceiling\u003c\/i\u003e is about memory, the pleasure of invention, and those places, real and imagined, we can't escape.\u003ch4\u003eDetails\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eISBN13: 9781398562271\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFormat: Paperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNumber of Pages: 224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEdition: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication Date: 01 Sep 2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublisher: Simon \u0026amp; Schuster Ltd\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication City, Country: London, United Kingdom\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDimensions (cm): 502.9(H)x330.2(L)x1.4(W)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWeight (gm): \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cb\u003eAysegül Savas\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of the novels \u003ci\u003eWalking on the Ceiling\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Anthropologists\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWhite on White\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eWalking on the Ceiling\u003c\/i\u003e; the story collection \u003ci\u003eLong Distance\u003c\/i\u003e; and the nonfiction book \u003ci\u003eThe Wilderness\u003c\/i\u003e. Her work has been translated into seven languages and her stories appear regularly in the \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker. \u003c\/i\u003eShe lives in Paris.\u003ch4\u003eReviews\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘A delicate, melancholy debut novel... The unreliability of memory; the ways we talk to ourselves and to each other; how we can act as detectives in our own lives, combing the past for clues; how places can seem clearer from afar than when we are there – all these themes are touched on in Savas’s spare, disarmingly simple prose. She writes with both sensuality and coolness, as if determined to find a rational explanation for the irrationality of existence, and for the narrator’s opaque understanding of herself’ \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘A beguiling little novel... going out for a stroll is the activity that most resembles the reading of Savas’s book – the way people and places are observed in passing, captured in short discreet word photographs that form a sweet, sad meditative ramble’ \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘An original, mesmerising story.... A beguiling tale of two cities which expertly illuminates 'the devious ways of memory'’ \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eEconomist\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘The kind of novel that stuns you in a way both quiet and surprising, launching you into reveries of your own’ \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eNylon Magazine\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘\u003ci\u003eWalking on the Ceiling\u003c\/i\u003e is an elegant meditation on grief, identity, memory and homecoming. Moving between Paris and Istanbul, the novel captures the tangle of narrative around history, both personal and collective. I fell in love with this book’ \u003cb\u003eKatie Kitamura, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eAudition \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eand \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Separation\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘Aysegül Savas is an enormous new talent who writes with the rigor of Didion and the tenderness of Sebald. \u003ci\u003eWalking on the Ceiling \u003c\/i\u003eholds the immediacy of youth and the depth of long-earned wisdom at once. Its elegant voice is sure to summon old memories and longings from each reader, relighting them anew’ \u003cb\u003eCatherine Lacey, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003ePEW\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘In \u003ci\u003eWalking on the Ceiling\u003c\/i\u003e, Aysegul Savas investigates the inability of any story to accurately evoke lived experience – yet her unconventional narrative succeeds in doing just that. Savas’s celebration of the minutest details of Paris and Istanbul is juxtaposed, to devastating effect, against rising political tensions. This quietly intense debut is the product of a wise and probing mind’ \u003cb\u003eHelen Phillips, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Need\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e and \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Beautiful Bureaucrat\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e‘Sensual, fragile, scented with hope and loss,\u003ci\u003e Walking on the Ceiling\u003c\/i\u003e is a powerful debut and Aysegül Savas is an extremely talented rising star’ \u003cb\u003eDorthe Nors, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eMirror, Shoulder, Signal\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e‘Nunu calls this reminiscence of M. an ‘inventory,’ and that's exactly what Savas has produced here, rendering with elegant intelligence the minute details of both places and people. That the novel moves in circles, acknowledging that some places can be glimpsed but never really explored, makes it all the more like a long walk through a city one can never quite call one's own. A refined and wistful exploration of the nature of memory’ \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eKirkus\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e, STARRED review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘The dislocations of place, identity, time, and truth eddy through Savas’s elegant debut… Interweaving past and present, Paris and istanbul, evasion and epiphany in spare yet evocative prose, Savas’s moving coming-of-age novel offers a rich exploration of intimacy, loneliness, and the endless fluidity of historical, cultural, and personal narrative’ \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘Savas' quiet and emotionally rich novel is a tender portrait of a young woman exploring her identity and coming to terms with her personal history… Like Elizabeth Strout’s \u003ci\u003eMy Name is Lucy Barton\u003c\/i\u003e, this novel is deceptively simple and subtly profound and will appeal to those fond of character studies and lovely writing’ \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eBooklist\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘Quiet, intense, and moving’ \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eLitHub\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Aysegül Savas","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49241060212953,"sku":"9781398562271","price":24.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.arielbooks.com.au\/products\/walking-on-the-ceiling-9781398562271","provider":"Ariel","version":"1.0","type":"link"}