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Why an old-fashioned novel is trending among Turkey's youth

A romantic Turkish novel first published in 1943 has finally been translated into English this month after becoming a social media sensation, coinciding with the third anniversary of the Gezi Park protests that shook Turkey and its ruling party.
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"Kurk Mantolu Madonna" ("Madonna in a Fur Coat") by Sabahattin Ali is a highly quotable book on issues such as love, relationships, loneliness, coincidences and miracles. But why is the 1940s novel still so popular in today's Turkey, and linked to a political event such as the Gezi Park protests?

The author lived in Germany between 1928 and 1930 and was shocked by the rise of Nazism there. As a left-wing poet, teacher and journalist, he returned home and became an outspoken critic of the single-party regime in the early years of the Turkish Republic. He serialized "Madonna in a Fur Coat" in a newspaper in 1941, two years before it would be published as a book.

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