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İki Yeşil Susamuru

İki Yeşil Susamuru

Contemporary RomanceDrama
Pages
300
Published
1991

Synopsis

İki Yeşil Susamuru follows Nilsu, a young architect who hands a written account of her own life to a writer to be told. Spanning 1978 to 1990, the novel traces her relationships, her fraught bond with an idealized mother, and her recurring pattern of leaving others before they can leave her.

At the center of the story is her relationship with Teoman, an emotional, idealistic environmentalist whose devotion to his own mother keeps him from fully building a life of his own. Around this pair, Buket Uzuner builds a portrait of an educated, searching generation trying to find workable answers to love, family, and the ecological damage overtaking their world.

It is, in the end, a novel about two people looking for solid ground — personal and environmental — in a country changing faster than either of them can process.

Prose complexity
7/10

Vibe

MelancholicReflectiveEmotional

Genres

Contemporary Romance Drama Literary Fiction Contemporary Literature Women's Fiction

About the author

B
Buket Uzuner

Buket Uzuner is a Turkish novelist, short-story writer and travel writer, born in Ankara in 1955. She trained as a biologist and worked in environmental science, lecturing in Turkey, Norway, the United States and Finland before writing full time. Her novels include Two Green Otters (1991), The Sound of Fishsteps (1993), Mediterranean Waltz (1997), The Long White Cloud – Gallipoli (2001) and Istanbullu (2007), together with the Adventures of Misfit Daphne Shaman sequence, which opened with Water...

Characters

NilsuProtagonist

A young architect recounting her own life, unable to trust others enough to be loved without fear.

TeomanSupporting

An idealistic environmentalist tied to his devotion to his mother.

All characters in İki Yeşil Susamuru

Frequently asked questions

  • How does the narrative structure challenge the reader?

    The book employs a meta-fictional structure where the narrator receives a manuscript from a character named Nilsu Baran and attempts to verify the existence of the people described within it. This creates a deliberate ambiguity regarding whether the characters are real or purely fictional, forcing the reader to question the boundary between the story and reality.

  • What is the significance of the susamuru metaphor?

    The title refers to the otter as a creature that lives in both water and on land, serving as a metaphor for the protagonists who struggle to find a stable home or identity. It symbolizes their attempt to balance their need for freedom with their desire for connection in a world where they feel like outsiders.

  • Is there a stage adaptation of this work?

    A theatrical adaptation of the novel exists, which focuses on the protagonist's journey of self-discovery following the separation of her parents.