“Life is a game that is only played once, and I lost.” #madonnainafurcoat

As I’ve mentioned recently, I’ve very much distracted by all sorts of book recommendations turning up on my Instagram feed. One particular title which kept appearing was one which I’d been vaguely aware of for a little while, and that’s the Penguin Classics edition of “Madonna in a Fur Coat” by Sabahattin Ali (translated here by Maureen Freely and Alexander Dawe). Both book and author were completely new to me when they appeared in my line of sight, but I confess I was intrigued. So when I happened to be in the local Waterstones, with £10 off my purchases thanks to my loyalty card, it simply had to come home with me! Sabahattin Ali was born into the Ottoman empire in 1907, in a town which is now part of Bulgaria. During his short life, he was a teacher, journalist, short story writer and novelist; he was also an outspoken opponent of the Turkish regime formed after collapse of Ottoman empire. His death is generally reckoned as a political murder. Of his three novels, “Madonna in a Fur…