Mister Fahim

Burcu Karahan, Advanced Lecturer, Comparative Literature (Turkish Language and Literature) and Melih Levi, former Comparative Literature graduate student, recently translated a Turkish novel into English that has just been published. The project began as a research collaboration at the Hoover Archives in 2017, when Melih Levi was a graduate student at Stanford University. Karahan and Levi worked on a draft they found in the archives, and the published book is the outcome of that independent study/research.

About the novel: 

Abdülhak Şinasi Hisar’s lasting masterpiece Fahim Bey ve Biz, which intricately weaves time and the human condition, is now available in English as Mister Fahim, thanks to the meticulous work of Burcu Karahan and Melih Levi. 

This edition is a literary event that goes far beyond the ordinary translation process. The journey, which began with the discovery of a lost translation draft from the 1950s by Eleanor Bisbee and Mithat Esmer in the archives of Hoover Institution at Stanford University, has been crowned with this accomplished edition. Regard for the past efforts has been seamlessly blended with the language of the present. 

Abdülhak Şinasi Hisar is one of Orhan Pamuk’s "heroes" and his character, Mister Fahim whom Claire Messud compares to the characters of Italo Svevo is now a universal figure, with his dreams, frustrations, and those grand companies he "never established." 

As Everest Yayınları, we are proud to bring this great name of Turkish literature to libraries around the world. Mister Fahim by Abdülhak Şinasi Hisar is available wherever books are sold! 

Translators: Burcu Karahan, Melih Levi