In this small apartment building stretching from Istanbul to Ankara, you will hear the sounds of life seeping through the doorways. Ayaşlı İbrahim Efendi is a shrewd landlord who carries his old habits in his pocket; his tenants are people looking for a new order in the first years of the Republic: a family of civil servants, a young woman with dreams of marriage, idealists trying to make ends meet, neighbors interested in gossip…

Memduh Şevket Esendal, with his simple yet sharp pen, probes the state of mind of a country in this narrow stairwell. The windows that open on each floor turn into curtains showing changing social values and human concerns. Small calculations, unexpected favors and subtle sarcasm take Ayaşlı ile Kiracıları from an ordinary apartment story to a timeless social panorama.

This novel is as memorable for its smiling details as it is for its sad breaks, because Esendal skillfully captures the familiar flaws and hopes that make people human without resorting to big words. When you step through Ayaşlı’s narrow door, you will perhaps feel that you are on the steps of your own apartment building.