This elegant yet challenging novel explores the damage which can be inflicted by our simple desire to look at others. An obese woman and her lover, a dwarf, are sick of being stared at wherever they go, and so decide to reverse roles. The man goes out wearing make up and the woman draws a moustache on her face. Intertwined with their story are entries from the mythological Dictionary of Gazes, and tales of a bizarre freak-show in Istanbul in the 1880s. 'Plays with ideas of beauty and ugliness like they're Rubik's cubes.' Helen Oyeyemi, author of The Icarus Girl 'Original and compelling.' TLS Translated from the Turkish by Brendan Freely
The Gaze | 
