The Anthropologists

‘An erudite and elegant meditation on modern life and modern love… Asya and Manu could very well be a couple in a novel by Sally Rooney or Caleb Azumah Nelson… Don’t be deceived by Savaş’s cool, matter-of-fact tone – beneath it lie layers of wisdom, delicacy and subtlety… This is not your typical marriage novel, or immigrant/expat novel, or novel of the city – although it threads together all these tropes. In writing about “the slow and leisurely rot of a day”, with all its delights and anxieties, and in praising its “unremarkable grace”, as Asya hopes to do with her filming, the author has created something remarkable.’ * Guardian *
‘A meticulous chronicle of circumspection, a knowing assessment of the motions we go through in cities, and a portrait of aspiration… I found myself not wanting The Anthropologists to end... Savaş’s interest is not in one destination, but in the minutiae of the couple’s daily lives… This immaculately observed book is about learning where those limits lie, and learning to live with them.’ * Financial Times *
‘Yet another gorgeous, gorgeous book from Aysegül Savaş: she is an author who simply, and astoundingly, knows. Savaş knows hope. Savaş knows despair. Savaş knows joy, and malaise, and laughter and curiosity. There are worlds inside of Savaş' prose, and The Anthropologists is both a bright light and a map for how to be. A massively heartening achievement.’ * Bryan Washington, author of Family Meal *
‘Like Walter Benjamin, Ayşegül Savaş uncovers trapdoors to bewilderment everywhere in everyday life; like Henry James, she sees marriage as a mystery, unsoundably deep. The Anthropologists is mesmerising; I felt I read it in a single breath.’  * Garth Greenwell, author of Cleanness *
‘Savaş’ prose is an X-ray – an acute portrait of the tender frequencies that make a life.’ * Raven Leilani, author of Luster *
‘The Anthropologists is about love, youth, and that most profound and elusive of subjects – happiness. Full of delicacy, wisdom and wit, this is another gorgeous work from one of my favourite writers.’  * Katie Kitamura, author of Intimacies *
'The Anthropologists captures love, coupledom, and the emigrant experience with breathtaking ease and truth. This detail-rich portrait of a marriage is refreshingly relatable, yet it is a relationship I've never before seen on the page. Savaş evokes the romantic sensibility of Alejandro Zambra; the profound everyday observations of Sigrid Nunez; the crisp intelligence of Rachel Cusk. One of the most intimate and deeply romantic novels I’ve read. I fell instantly in love. Whatever Savaş writes next, I will read.' * Jenny Mustard, author of Okay Days *