Madonna In A Fur Coat

Madonna in a Fur Coat is a novel written by Turkish author Sabahattin Ali that was published in 1943.

The book tells the story of Raif, who is living a purposeless life until he meets a woman named Maria Puder. Initially, the book was criticized by many critics because "it was just another love story", but it became a bestseller in time, and is usually is recalled among the best works in Turkish literature. It was translated to English by Maureen Freely in 2016, making Sabahattin Ali one of the two Turkish authors to be included in Penguin Classics, alongside Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar with his book, "The Time Regulation Institute".

Development

Sabahattin Ali's daughter, Filiz Ali, in an interview with BBC, has stated that she found Maria was inspired by a real life acquaintance of Sabahattin. Sabahattin Ali, as a young man in Berlin in the 1920s, knew a woman called Maria. They sent letters to each other, and often walked together, occasionally holding hands.

Storyline

The story takes place in Ankara in 1930s. The narrator is going through hard times of unemployment and poverty. With the help of a former friend, he finds a job as a clerk in a firm. There, he shares his office with an ordinary looking man, Raif, who he calls "the sort of man who causes us to ask ourselves: 'What do they live for? What do they find in life? What logic compels them to keep breathing?'" As they keep working together, they form a friendship.

One day, the narrator finds out that Raif has fallen sick and decides to visit him. As they talk, Raif asks his friend to destroy a notebook that is hidden in a drawer. The narrator picks up the notebook, reads a few sentences and asks Raif if he can borrow it for a day. Raif allows him to keep the notebook, but says he must destroy it after reading. The narrator walks to his home and starts reading the notebook.

The narrator meets a younger Raif as he reads the notebook. Ten years ago, Raif was sent to Berlin by his father to learn the art of soapmaking, and then return to his home in Havran to become the manager of his family's soap manufactories. But he is not interested in soapmaking, so he spents his days reading and wandering in the streets. One day, he walks into an art exhibition where he sees the portrait of a woman. He is so impressed by the woman in the portrait that after that day, he starts coming back to the exhibition until the painter, Maria Puder, introduces herself to Raif. The first encounter goes awkwardly and Raif leaves the exhibition.

Sometime later, Raif sees a woman in a fur coat that he quickly recognizes while strolling in the streets of Berlin at night. He follows the woman to a bar called "Atlantic" and finds out that she is a performer at the bar. After her show, Maria sits beside Raif and they form an intensely platonic friendship. They start spending a lot of time together. Raif is intensely in love with Maria, but he is not sure if she feels the same way, so he holds back. It is revealed that Maria grew up without a father and therefore plays a male-like, dominant role in the relationship; while Raif is more naive. Maria makes it clear she doesn't want a romantic partner.

They spend Christmas night together, drinking alcohol and dancing. Raif accompanies a drunk Maria to her home, takes care of her and in the morning, they wake up next to each other. They have an argument, and Maria asks Raif to leave her house. Raif walks for hours, having no idea as to where he is going. He ends up at Wannsee, and his thoughts are occupied with questions of intimacy and a meaning in life as he thinks how Heinrich von Kleist and his lover committed suicide together at the very view, and he decides to go back to Maria's house. There, he finds out that Maria was quite ill, and since her mother left their home to go to Prague, she was hospitalized.

Raif rushes into the hospital, and begs his way inside. There he finds a sick Maria, who is finally convinced that Raif is not like any other man and actually is in love with her. Maria admits that she loves Raif. They spend the next month at the hospital until they decide to leave the hospital for home-care.

Maria soon regains her strength, but Raif finds out that his father died and decides he needs to leave for Havran. Maria too decides to leave Berlin to live with her mother in Prague, until Raif settles in Turkey and invites her to live with him. When he finally reaches Turkey, he sees that his brother-in-laws have claimed a big portion of the inheritance. He is given a "wasteland" to farm. While he works in his olive fields, his only source of joy is Maria's letters, until one day the letters stop coming. In one of her last letters, Maria says she has got a surprise that she will reveal when they see each other face to face. When she stops sending letters, Raif thinks Maria too has betrayed him and is heartbroken. He has lost his will to live, and eventually marries a woman that she doesn't like, and lives with her in between the furniture he bought for Maria. He thinks that if even his Maria was going to betray him, then not another person on this Earth is worth his trust and alienizes himself from the society. Raif finds a job as a German translator in a lumber firm.

Ten years later, an old acquaintance of Raif from Berlin, who is also a relative of Maria, meets Raif in Ankara, with a child beside her. She reveals that Maria has died from a sickness nine years ago, and she left a baby girl, whose father was a "Turkish man she refused to name" and leaves. On his deathbed, Raif is dying with the guilt of not trusting Maria and regrets alienizing himself.

The next day, the narrator goes to Raif's house to give back the notebook and talk, but Raif has died. Narrator goes to their office, sits on Raif's desk, and reads the notebook once again.

References

{{Reflist

1943 novels
Turkish novels
Novels set in Turkey