Publisher's Synopsis
The seminal novel by Halide Edip Adivar, a feminist and fighter for Turkish independence, about Tevfik, the Clown of the title, an actor in the orta oyunu and producer of the puppet theater Karagoz; his daughter Rabia, an expert in Turkish traditional music and singing the responses in the mosque; the dervish sage, Vehbi Dede; the defrocked priest musician Peregrini; the cruel Minister of Justice Selim Pasha, a lover of love songs and Turkish folk music; his brooding rebellious son Hilmi, the Circassian concubine Kanarya, and many more ... The New Turk movement and the decline of the Ottoman empire set within a context of Turkish folk art and shadow theater. Published originally in English as the Clown and His Daughter, in 1935, then in 1936 in Turkish as Sinekli Bakkal. The present work is a new translation of the Turkish version.
