Red Dress in Black & White
Elliot Ackerman, 2020
Knopf Doubleday
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780525521815
Summary
From the widely acclaimed author of Waiting for Eden: a stirring, timely new novel that unfolds over the course of a single day in Istanbul: the story of an American woman attempting to leave behind her life in Turkey—to leave without her husband.
Catherine has been married for many years to Murat, an influential Turkish real estate developer, and they have a young son together, William.
But when she decides to leave her marriage and return home to the United States with William and her photographer lover, Murat determines to take a stand.
He enlists the help of an American diplomat to prevent his wife and child from leaving the country—but, by inviting this scrutiny into their private lives, Murat becomes only further enmeshed in a web of deception and corruption.
As the hidden architecture of these relationships is gradually exposed, we learn the true nature of a cast of struggling artists, wealthy businessmen, expats, spies, a child pulled in different directions by his parents, and, ultimately, a society in crisis.
Riveting and unforgettably perceptive, Red Dress in Black and White is a novel of personal and political intrigue that casts light into the shadowy corners of a nation on the brink. (From the publisher.)