Mount Qaf

Mount Qaf tells the story of a Turkish journalist, Emel, who is trying to track down Zahide, an old Pakistani friend she met while studying in the United States. In the course of her investigations, she finds out that Zahide has been arrested as part of the CIA rendition program and has in all likelihood been given a new identity in a clandestine program. As the novel reaches its traumatic, bloody climax, Emel’s identity begins to disintegrate and we can no longer be sure that the new identity that was given to Zahide was not in fact Emel. In Mount Oaf, Müge Iplikçi takes the idea of the outsider and internalizes it so that the story is not about the conflict between East and West or urban and rural, but about the conflict within the head of the main character.