I wonder what amazed me most about this book: the perfectly shaped love triangles, the main love story that starts when the boy is 5 and the girl is 7 and is very much alive in their thirties, the constant wondering if it is all real, all unreal, all partly real?

I don’t have a favorite character either. I love Blue Duna/Mabel for his long lasting love, for his way of acceptance, for being the type of the “different from the others” man, for suffering so genuinely when being compared with the rest, for being do determined to believe the civil war is nothing but a nightmare, an image of a vengeful subconscious.

I also love Brunette Ada, the raingirl daughter of two movie cinemas, an avant-garde woman and passionate photographer, blaming herself too much for a crime she did not commit, being afraid to admit to the love she feels for Duna.

I love Aras, the symbol of traditional masculinity and competitiveness, the pretty boy that does not care other girls than his own admire him. His clumsiness in treating the woman he loves as opposed of his perfect way of doing everything else.

The quiet and pale Merrich that is actually strong-willed, sharp-tongued and very focused. The lady doctor that seems so independent but depends on her husbands opinion even for shopping.

The poet Dogan Gokay for his typical way of putting every thought into literary expression. I love his permanent contact with and guidance of the young people around him. His strange passions and perfect insight of others’ character.

Pervin Gokay and Sureyya Mercan for their movie stars love: true, flamboyant, romantic, perfect, troubled, normal, mundane and a lot more at the same time.

These are just a few characters of the novel, all having such real relationships with each other, all having an impact and leaving a print on everyone else’s life. Family connections, love connections, hate connections, all are perfectly shown in the book.

Warm memories combined with war atrocities and violence, sanity mixed with complete madness, heaven and hell, all happening as they usually do in our Earthly world.

You can find more details on the author here. And a description of the book here.