The Anthropologists

Set in a foreign city far from their families, Ayşegül Savaş's story follows Asya and Manu, a couple touring apartments and imagining the future they might build there. Without the web of family obligations around them, they wonder which traditions and rituals to make their own. Asya, a documentary filmmaker, spends her days filming in the neighborhood park like an anthropologist studying local customs, eager to learn how people really live, while her grandmother tells her by phone that no one cares about daily life. Back home, parents age, grandparents fall ill and nieces and nephews grow up, just out of reach. The story moves through apartment viewings, late-night talks, final drinks and slow breakfasts.

Barack Obama included it among his favorite books of 2024.