A seductive and lyrical debut following a young woman’s dangerous summer romance during an idyllic vacation on the Aegean coast
"A gorgeous exploration." —Raven Leilani, author of Luster
Ada adores spending every summer in a Turkish seaside town with her mother and grandmother at the family villa. The glittering waters, endless olive groves, and her spirited friends make it easy to leave her idle life in California behind. But no matter how much Ada feels she belongs to the country where her mother grew up, deep down, her connection to the culture feels as fleeting as the seasons.
When Levent, a mysterious man from her mother’s past, shows up in their town, Ada can’t help but imagine a different future for her mother—one that promises a return to home, to love, to happiness. But while playing matchmaker, Ada has to come to terms with her own intensifying attraction to Levent. Does the future she’s fighting for belong to her mother—or to her alone?
Lush and evocative, İnci Atrek’s Holiday Country is a rapturous meditation about what it means to experience being of two worlds, the limitations and freedom of a life in translation, and the intricacies of a love triangle that stretches across generations and continents.
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Inci Atrek's mesmerizing Holiday Country is sizzling with the heat and hurt of young adulthood, brimming over with all of the associated desires: to explore, to feel seen, to belong, and, of course, the impossible wish to turn back the hands of time. With beautiful prose that transports you to the seaside town along the Aegean Sea where young Ada spends her summers, Atrek fully entangles you into the generation-long drama overdue to unravel. This book is full of wisdom and insights about mothers, daughters, and the men who surround them and it smolders as we watch Ada do the unavoidable: become her own person.
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Xochitl Gonzalez, New York Times bestselling author of Olga Dies Dreaming