Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar – författare

One of the greatest and most overlooked novels of the twentieth century, by an author championed by Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, The Time Regulation Institute appears here in English for the first time-more than fifty years after its original publication in Turkish.This is the story of the misadventures of Hayri Irdals, an unforgettable antihero who, along with an eccentric cast of characters (a television mystic, a pharmacist who dabbles in alchemy, a dignitary from the lost Ottoman empire, the "life-artist" Halit), founds The Time Regulation Institute. The institute's quixotic quest: to make sure all the clocks in Turkey are set to Western time. Thus begins a brilliant satire about the calamitous arrival of Western and corporate values in tradition-bound Turkey.An uproarious tragicomedy that is still startlingly relevant, The Time Regulation Institute illuminates the collision of East and West, tradition and modernity, that has been playing out in Turkey since the early twentieth century.AHMET HAMDI TANPINAR (1901-1962) was a poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist, literary historian, and professor. He is considered one of the most significant Turkish novelists of the 20th century. Deeply influenced by Valéry and Bergson, he created a unique cultural universe in his work, bringing together a European literary voice and the sensibilities of the East.MAUREEN FREELY (translator) is the principal translator of Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel Prize-winning Turkish novelist. She lives in England.ALEXANDER DAWE (translator) is an American translator of French and Turkish. He lives in Istanbul.PANKAJ MISHRA (introducer) is an award-winning novelist and essayist whose writing appears frequently in the New York Review of Books, The Guardian, and the London Review of Books. He lives in London and India.

'Just as she was being lowered into the earth - following the late afternoon call to prayer - my aunt sprang briskly back to life'In this fictional memoir of Hayri Irdal - troublesome boy, workshy man and feckless husband - life is examined in all its double-crossing, chaotic, disastrous glory. From his youth, dismantling timepieces while his family fell apart, to his later years at the scandal-hit Time Regulation Institute, Hayri's absurdist misadventures play out as a brilliant allegory of the collision between East and West, tradition and modernity.

A literary discovery: an uproarious tragicomedy of modernization, in its first-ever English translation   Perhaps the greatest Turkish novel of the twentieth century, being discovered around the world only now, more than fifty years after its first publication, The Time Regulation Institute is an antic, freewheeling send-up of the modern bureaucratic state.   At its center is Hayri Irdal, an infectiously charming antihero who becomes entangled with an eccentric cast of characters—a television mystic, a pharmacist who dabbles in alchemy, a dignitary from the lost Ottoman Empire, a “clock whisperer”—at the Time Regulation Institute, a vast organization that employs a hilariously intricate system of fines for the purpose of changing all the clocks in Turkey to Western time. Recounted in sessions with his psychoanalyst, the story of Hayri Irdal’s absurdist misadventures plays out as a brilliant allegory of the collision of tradition and modernity, of East and West, infused with a poignant blend of hope for the promise of the future and nostalgia for a simpler time. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.From the Trade Paperback edition.

Der junge Historiker Mümtaz hat eine geradezu osmotische Beziehung zu der alten, vom Verfall bedrohten Sultansmetropole: zu ihren Bauwerken, zum Basar voller rätselhafter Dinge, zur Poesie, zur klassischen Musik. Als er Nuran kennenlernt, erwacht in dieser Liebe einen Sommer lang der Zauber der alten osmanischen Kultur zu neuem Leben. Bis eines Tages der todkranke Suat, Studiengefährte und Rivale von Mümtaz, auftaucht und diese Liebe zerstört. »Tanpinars Werk ist aus der türkischen Gegenwartsliteratur nicht wegzudenken. Nicht nur Linksintellektuelle, Modernisten und am Westen ausgerichtete Denker, sondern auch Konservative, Traditionalisten und Nationalisten räumen ihm diesen Status ein und berufen sich gerne und oft auf Tanpinars Renommée und Ansehen. Seine Auseinandersetzung mit der alten würdevoll-beschaulichen osmanischen Kultur einerseits und sein Aufgreifen moderner Tendenzen der europäischen Literatur andererseits machen ihn zu einer faszinierenden Persönlichkeit.« Orhan Pamuk

Det är en satirisk roman som utforskar konflikten mellan tradition och modernitet i det tidiga republiken Turkiet. Genom den absurda berättelsen om Hayri İrdal, som blir involverad i ett bisarrt institut ägnat åt att reglera klockor, speglar romanen humoristiskt byråkrati, social förändring och kampen i ett samhälle fångat mellan österländskt arv och västerländska ideal.