Tattered Cover is honored to present Nazlı Koca live at our Colfax location on February 14th at 6pm. This will be the book launch of her debut The Applicant. She will be in conversation with Steven Dunn. It is free and open to the public.
ABOUT THE BOOK
A singular debut from "an important and radical new literary voice" (Elif Batuman), The Applicant explores with wit and brevity what it means to be an immigrant, woman, and emerging writer.
It's 2017 and Leyla, a Turkish twenty-something living in Berlin is scrubbing toilets at an Alice in Wonderland-themed hostel after failing her thesis, losing her student visa, and suing her German university in a Kafkaesque attempt to reverse her failure.Increasingly distant from what used to be at arm's reach--writerly ambitions, tight knit friendships, a place to call home--Leyla attempts to find solace in the techno beats of Berlin's nightlife, with little success. Right as the clock winds down on the hold on her visa, Leyla meets a conservative Swedish tourist and--against her political convictions and better judgment--begins to fall in love, or something like it. Will she accept an IKEA life with the Volvo salesman and relinquish her creative dreams, or return to Turkey to her mother and sister, codependent and enmeshed, her father's ghost still haunting their lives?While she waits for the German court's verdict on her future, in the pages of her diary, Leyla begins to parse her unresolved past and untenable present. An indelible character at once precocious and imperiled, Leyla gives voice to the working-class and immigrant struggle to find safety, self-expression, and happiness. The Applicant is an extraordinary dissection of a liminal life between borders and identities, an original and darkly funny debut.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nazlı Koca is a writer and poet from Turkey who now lives in Denver. Her writing has appeared in the Threepenny Review, Bookforum, and Second Factory, among other outlets. The Applicant is her first novel.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Steven Dunn is the author of two novels from Tarpaulin Sky Press: Potted Meat(2016) and water & power (2018), and the chapbook Our Migrations (Business Bear Press, 2018 & 2019) Potted Meat was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award, and shortlisted for Granta Magazine’s Best of Young American Novelists, and adapted to a short film by Foothills Productions. The Usual Route has played at L.A. International Film Festival, Houston International Film Festival, and others. He was born and raised in West Virginia.
