The Applicant

Written in journal-style entries, Koca’s debut novel keeps its pace taut without ever seeming strained or frenetic. Leyla is a witty, acutely observant, and deeply sympathetic character who manages to tell the details of her life-both the transcendent epiphanies and the debauched aftermaths-with an honesty that disavows patronizing pity. This is a book about some of the largest issues of our time-ethnic identity, national belonging, the psychological traumas of patriarchy and White supremacy, sexual ownership, feminist reckoning-but it is also, and perhaps primarily, a book about the intimacy between a character and a reader as one agrees to talk and the other agrees to listen. A powerful debut that heralds a voice intent on being heard. * Kirkus, starred review *
An important and radical new literary voice * Elif Batuman *
A virtuosic, visceral meditation on borders, in-betweenness, and identity, and a testament to why we read in the first place: to laugh, to be devastated. With exhilarating and eviscerating wit, Nazli Koca is a daring and provocative prose stylist with heart * Patrick Cottrell, Author of SORRY TO DISRUPT THE PEACE *
An exuberant debut from Nazli Koca, who has something to declare about both the boldness and the fear gripping the young navigating the cruel farce of our modern world * Manuel Muñoz, author of THE CONSEQUENCES *
Nazli Koca has the rare gift of making you laugh and weep within a page. Bold and original. * Sanaë Lemoine, author of THE MARGOT AFFAIR *
An exceptional novel * Joyelle McSweeney, author of TOXICON AND ARACHNE *
Superb… a three-page narrative about Leyla’s friend’s experience as an au pair is Tolstoy-level stuff, offering a window into human relationships fractured by patriarchal violence… The Applicant [has] a brilliant, and challenging, political awareness * Luke Kennard, The Telegraph *

Nazli Koca is a writer and poet from the Mediterranean coast of Turkey who holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Notre Dame. She has lived in Berlin and now lives in New York City. She is the recipient of grants from the Nanovic Institute, Soham Dance Space, and United States Artists. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Threepenny Review, BookForum, Second Factory, The Chicago Review of Books, and books without covers, among other outlets. The Applicant is her first novel.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.