Hasan Ali Toptaş is often referred to as the modern Turkish equivalent of Kafka, and his work “Shadowless” solidifies this comparison. Despite his recognition in Turkey, where he is esteemed similarly to Orhan Pamuk, the delay in having his works available in English is noteworthy. First published in Turkey in 1995, this novel has only recently been translated into English. Like Pamuk, Toptaş has been the recipient of several prestigious literary awards in Turkey, including the Orhan Kemal Novel Prize, the Culture Ministry Prize, the Çankaya Literature Prize, the Yunus Nadi Novel Prize, the Cevdet Kudret Literature Prize, and the Turkish Writers’ Union Great Novel Prize.
The story begins in a barbershop in an unnamed Anatolian village. The narrator enters, and the barber, in a symbolic gesture, raises his scissors as a toast to the narrator’s health before the narrator takes a seat. The dialogue between them hints at the events unfolding in the novel-in-progress, forming a story within a story.
The novel explores themes of loss, separation, and displacement as characters appear, disappear, and reappear, grappling with questions of their past and their current reality. Names like Nuri the barber and Güvercin the Dove are reserved for the disappeared, while other characters and locations are symbolic elements in the narrative. The vivid descriptions of the village and city create a sense of atmosphere and contrast between reality and dreamlike sequences.
The story employs temporal and spatial shifts, creating a sense of transience and powerlessness present in the village. Surrealistic sequences are interwoven throughout the narrative, although at times, they may overpower the storyline. Nuri’s Kafkaesque journey and the themes of longing for a distant past resonate with the historical context of forced disappearances in Turkey.
The novel concludes with a metafictional twist, hinting that the entire narrative may be a product of the narrator’s imagination. The reveal of the narrator’s identity being integrated into the story adds a layer of complexity to the storytelling, emphasizing the author’s creative control.
