("The Girl From the Golden Horn")

Tried to make a go with this story of a young Turkish woman's 'journeys in the landscape of exile and love in post-WWI Europe', but failed. The first 50 pages made me feel vaguely glum, and it didn't promise to get any better.  For what it is worth, the author Kurban Said is said to be shrouded by exotic mystery.

Maybe there are some good reasons why I so rarely read translated works in English. "Embers" by Sandor Marai is yet another I didn't get very far with.  And maybe I can't blame their opaqueness on translation at all -- I did have better luck with Banana Yoshimoto's "Kitchen". Maybe with a certain class of novels, I'll always find it hard to enter into the characters' sensibilities. Penelope Fitzgerald ("The Gate of Angels") comes to mind.