Madonna In a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali
4.8/5 Stars. Read April 2025.
A lonely observer of life, Raif remains hidden—until Maria draws him out, and the world finally comes into focus.
I did not know the true meaning of yearning until I read this book. Our protagonist, Raif, is a ludicrously shy man that walks through the world at a vast distance from those around him, desperately afraid of judgement and vehemently opposed to participation. He is a spectator, he is a loner, he lives within his own mind and nowhere else. Until he meets Maria. The enigmatic, complicated, and wounded Maria… and the turtle pops out of his shell. And what a glorious world he sees when he finally chooses to witness it. The character building in this book, especially Raif’s, is just fantastic.
A breathtaking tale of love’s power to transform—and its absence to unravel—the soul.
This novel is about how love, about how choosing dedication to another person, transforms your soul in the most beautiful ways. And it is about how losing that person, even just the simple absence of them, can hollow out your heart until you become a shadow of who you once were. Oh, what a wistful, desperate, and stunning story this was.
“She had swept me away from my dark and silent world, delivering me to the land of truth and light.”
“For a brief while, a woman had pulled me out of listless lethargy; she had taught me that I was a man, or rather, a human being; she had shown me that the world was not as absurd as a I had previously thought and that I had the capacity for joy.”
“There was only one person I’d ever believed in. I’d believed in her so deeply that — once deceived — I lost the will ever to believe in anyone again. I felt no anger towards her. I could not begrudge or resent her, or even think ill of her. Rather, I begrudged and resented everyone in the world; because for me she was the symbol of humanity.”