The Anthropologists
Will be published approx. on 1. August 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
192 pages
978-1-3985-4078-1 (ISBN)
Description
'Savas' prose is an X-ray - an acute portrait of the tender frequencies that make a life.' Raven Leilani, author of Luster
Asya and Manu are looking at apartments, envisioning their future in a foreign city. Removed from the web of family and its obligations, what traditions and rituals should they establish together?
As they dream about the possibilities of each new listing, Asya, a documentary filmmaker, spends her days gathering footage from the neighbourhood park like an anthropologist observing local customs, anxious to know how people really live. 'Forget about daily life,' chides her grandmother on the phone, 'no one cares about that.'
Meanwhile, life back in Asya and Manu's respective home countries continues - parents age, grandparents get sick, nieces and nephews grow up - all just slightly beyond their reach. But the world they're making in their new city is growing, too, they hope. As they open up the horizons of their lives, what and whom will they hold onto, and what will they need to release?
Unfolding over a series of apartment viewings, late-night conversations, last rounds of drinks and lazy breakfasts, The Anthropologists is a soulful examination of home-building and modern love, written with Ayseguel Savas' distinctive elegance, warmth and humour.
Advance praise for THE ANTHROPOLOGISTS
'The Anthropologists is about love, youth, and that most profound and elusive of subjects - happiness. Full of delicacy, wisdom and wit, this is another gorgeous work from one of my favourite writers.' Katie Kitamura, author of Intimacies
'Like Walter Benjamin, Ayseguel Savas uncovers trapdoors to bewilderment everywhere in everyday life; like Henry James, she sees marriage as a mystery, unsoundably deep. The Anthropologists is mesmerising; I felt I read it in a single breath.' Garth Greenwell, author of Cleanness
'Yet another gorgeous, gorgeous book from Ayseguel Savas: she is an author who simply, and astoundingly, knows. Savas knows hope. Savas knows despair. Savas knows joy, and malaise, and laughter and curiosity. There are worlds inside of Savas' prose, and The Anthropologists is both a bright light and a map for how to be. A massively heartening achievement.' Bryan Washington, author of Family Meal
Asya and Manu are looking at apartments, envisioning their future in a foreign city. Removed from the web of family and its obligations, what traditions and rituals should they establish together?
As they dream about the possibilities of each new listing, Asya, a documentary filmmaker, spends her days gathering footage from the neighbourhood park like an anthropologist observing local customs, anxious to know how people really live. 'Forget about daily life,' chides her grandmother on the phone, 'no one cares about that.'
Meanwhile, life back in Asya and Manu's respective home countries continues - parents age, grandparents get sick, nieces and nephews grow up - all just slightly beyond their reach. But the world they're making in their new city is growing, too, they hope. As they open up the horizons of their lives, what and whom will they hold onto, and what will they need to release?
Unfolding over a series of apartment viewings, late-night conversations, last rounds of drinks and lazy breakfasts, The Anthropologists is a soulful examination of home-building and modern love, written with Ayseguel Savas' distinctive elegance, warmth and humour.
Advance praise for THE ANTHROPOLOGISTS
'The Anthropologists is about love, youth, and that most profound and elusive of subjects - happiness. Full of delicacy, wisdom and wit, this is another gorgeous work from one of my favourite writers.' Katie Kitamura, author of Intimacies
'Like Walter Benjamin, Ayseguel Savas uncovers trapdoors to bewilderment everywhere in everyday life; like Henry James, she sees marriage as a mystery, unsoundably deep. The Anthropologists is mesmerising; I felt I read it in a single breath.' Garth Greenwell, author of Cleanness
'Yet another gorgeous, gorgeous book from Ayseguel Savas: she is an author who simply, and astoundingly, knows. Savas knows hope. Savas knows despair. Savas knows joy, and malaise, and laughter and curiosity. There are worlds inside of Savas' prose, and The Anthropologists is both a bright light and a map for how to be. A massively heartening achievement.' Bryan Washington, author of Family Meal
Reviews / Votes
'An erudite and elegant meditation on modern life and modern love... Asya and Manu could very well be a couple in a novel by Sally Rooney or Caleb Azumah Nelson... Don't be deceived by Savas's cool, matter-of-fact tone - beneath it lie layers of wisdom, delicacy and subtlety... This is not your typical marriage novel, or immigrant/expat novel, or novel of the city - although it threads together all these tropes. In writing about "the slow and leisurely rot of a day", with all its delights and anxieties, and in praising its "unremarkable grace", as Asya hopes to do with her filming, the author has created something remarkable.' * Guardian * 'A meticulous chronicle of circumspection, a knowing assessment of the motions we go through in cities, and a portrait of aspiration... I found myself not wanting The Anthropologists to end... Savas's interest is not in one destination, but in the minutiae of the couple's daily lives... This immaculately observed book is about learning where those limits lie, and learning to live with them.' * Financial Times * 'In this subtle and resonant novel, Savas charts the way we sometimes choose-and sometimes drift into-the path to our future' * The New Yorker * 'Utterly enchanting' * The New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice * 'It is a novel that takes as its subject the texture, routines and rituals of a particular lifestyle - itinerant and youthful, or at least untethered by children - and serves as sort of a field guide to its participants . . . One of the book's strengths lies in Savas's ability to capture the experience of life as an outsider in a new place' * The Atlantic * 'Yet another gorgeous, gorgeous book from Ayseguel Savas: she is an author who simply, and astoundingly, knows. Savas knows hope. Savas knows despair. Savas knows joy, and malaise, and laughter and curiosity. There are worlds inside of Savas' prose, and The Anthropologists is both a bright light and a map for how to be. A massively heartening achievement.' * Bryan Washington, author of Family Meal * 'Like Walter Benjamin, Ayseguel Savas uncovers trapdoors to bewilderment everywhere in everyday life; like Henry James, she sees marriage as a mystery, unsoundably deep. The Anthropologists is mesmerising; I felt I read it in a single breath.' * Garth Greenwell, author of Cleanness * 'Savas's prose is an X-ray - an acute portrait of the tender frequencies that make a life.' * Raven Leilani, author of Luster * 'The Anthropologists is about love, youth, and that most profound and elusive of subjects - happiness. Full of delicacy, wisdom and wit, this is another gorgeous work from one of my favourite writers.' * Katie Kitamura, author of Intimacies * 'The Anthropologists captures love, coupledom, and the emigrant experience with breathtaking ease and truth. This detail-rich portrait of a marriage is refreshingly relatable, yet it is a relationship I've never before seen on the page. Savas evokes the romantic sensibility of Alejandro Zambra; the profound everyday observations of Sigrid Nunez; the crisp intelligence of Rachel Cusk. One of the most intimate and deeply romantic novels I've read. I fell instantly in love. Whatever Savas writes next, I will read.' * Jenny Mustard, author of Okay Days * '2024 was the year of the breakup book . . . Here is an antidote. Manu and Asya's concerns are modest . . . It's a joy to be on this journey with them. Each sentence sings, and watching [them] find a home in each other rather than in the places they've been is defiantly, explicitly hopeful' * Vulture, #1 Book of the Year * 'What makes this slim novel sing are the intricately drawn ways the couple spends their time with the people around them, whether neighbours, friends, or family members. As Asya and Manu view apartments and imagine different futures for themselves, Savas crafts a remarkable narrative about the ordinary moments that fill our lives' * Time, 10 Best Fiction Books of 2024 * 'Here, a unicorn: a propulsive, well-written novel about a couple in which both parties enjoy the other's company . . . The book feels a little like a magic trick. Through pitch-perfect observations, droll and intimate interactions, through attention and care, Aysegul Savas has conjured a page turner' * Vanity Fair, 21 Best Books of 2024 * 'A great love story about ageing parents, romantic love, and what it means to call a place home' * Electric Literature, Best Novels of 2024 *More details
Edition
ANZ Only
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Simon & Schuster Ltd
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 153 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-3985-4078-1 (9781398540781)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Ayseguel Savas is the author of the novels Walking on the Ceiling, The Anthropologists, White on White, and Walking on the Ceiling; the story collection Long Distance; and the nonfiction book The Wilderness. Her work has been translated into seven languages and her stories appear regularly in the New Yorker. She lives in Paris.