THE GAZE

The Gaze won the Turkish Writers Best Novel Award.

In this novel Shafak explores how “seeing and being seen” shapes our lives. The Gaze has a multilayered structure in which all the stories and characters are ultimately and surprisingly connected. The story extends from 17th century Siberia to 18th century France, from 19th century Istanbul to modern Istanbul. What connects all the pieces together is the theme of the gaze.

Among all Shafak books The Gaze is the most avant-garde one. The novel’s both style and themes were highly praised by literary critics in Turkey. It was seen as a rare example of “magical schizophrenia.”

Summary

In her prize wining novel, "The Gaze", Shafak explores the subject of body image and desirability. An overweight woman and her lover, a dwarf, are sick of being stared at wherever they go, and decide to reverse roles. The man goes out wearing make up, and the woman draws a moustache on her face. The couple deal with the gaze of passers by in different ways. The woman wants to hide away from the world, while the man meets them head on, even compiling his own ´Dictionary of the Gaze´ to show the powerful effects a simple look can have.

The narrative of "The Gaze" is intertwined with the dwarf´s dictionary entries and the story of a bizarre freak-show organized in Istanbul in the 1880s as Shafak explores the damage which can be done by our simple desire to look at other people.

Praise

A hyper-active, hilarious trip with farce, passion, mystery and many sidelights on Turkey’s past.

The Independent

´Elif Shafak´s The Gaze, about a romance between a huge woman and a dwarf, plays with ideas of beauty and ugliness like they´re Rubik´s cubes.´

Helen Oyeyemi, author of The Icarus Girl

Take special notice of this multi-populated, enchanting work set is dilapidated flats dominated by an overpowering stench. It is wonderful.

The Bookseller

‘The Gaze is an effective, often painful rumination on the appearance and the reality of dreams.’

The Telegraph, 27 May 2006

‘Shafak probes the many ironies of appearance and perception with entertaining and affecting results.’

Publishers’ Weekly 19 June 2006

‘Shafak is more than a worthy heir to Isabel Allende’s brand of magical realism. A quiet intelligence underpins the novel’s flamboyant surrealism.’

The Independent, 30 June 2006

‘The author is the hottest young writer in Turkey, and the background of her strange novel is beautifully evoked, but her preoccupations are universal. Human beings long to look, to stare, to gaze at anything that makes them curious. Sometimes, the pitiless gazes of others can flay like knives. A fat woman and a dwarf become lovers, drawn together by their status as freaks. Their story is interwoven with the story of a freak show in 1880s Istanbul. Shafak enters the isolation of those unfortunate enough to be different.’

The Times, July 8 2006

‘A richly layered narrative concerning misfits and how society views them…a strange, hallucinatory work.’

Kirkus Reviews, 15 July 2006

‘Shafak’s orignal and compelling book has perception as its overarching theme. Like time itself, Shafak suggests, seeing and looking are circular, referential forms, with the constant movement of a glance returning again and again to its subject, unstoppable and penetrating”

TLS, 21 July 2006