The Gaze
  • Published: 24 June 2015
  • ISBN: 9780241201916
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $30.00

The Gaze

Formats & editions
Paperback
24 Jun 2015
EBook
20 Oct 2010
Buy from…
The Nile Mighty Ape BookHub Whitcoulls The Warehouse Paper Plus Fishpond
Find local retailers

A beautiful and compelling novel that considers the damage which can be inflicted by our simple desire to look at others

'I didn't say anything. I didn't return his smiles. I looked at him in the wide mirror in front of where I was sitting. He grew uncomfortable and avoided my eyes. I hate those who think fat people are stupid.'

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. But while the woman wants to hide away from the world, the man meets the stares from passers-by head on, compiling his 'Dictionary of Gazes' to explore the boundaries between appearance and reality.

Intertwined with the story of a bizarre freak-show organized in Istanbul in the 1880s, The Gaze considers the damage which can be inflicted by our simple desire to look at others.
  • Published: 24 June 2015
  • ISBN: 9780241201916
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $30.00
Categories:
Share…

About the author

Elif Shafak

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist whose work has been translated into fifty-five languages. The author of nineteen books, twelve of which are novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak's latest novel, The Island of Missing Trees, was a top ten Sunday Times bestseller, a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick and was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and the Women's Prize. Her previous novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize; longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award; and chosen as Blackwell's Book of the Year. She is a Vice-President of the Royal Society of Literature. Shafak was awarded the Halldór Laxness International Literature Prize for her contribution to 'the renewal of the art of storytelling.'

Also by Elif Shafak

Three Daughters of Eve
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World
The Bastard of Istanbul
The Island of Missing Trees
The Architect's Apprentice
Black Milk
Honour
See all