Description
A wry, first-person memoir unfolds through the life of Hayri İrdal, a watch-repairing loafer who grows into the unlikely center of a grand national project: a fictional institute tasked with regulating time across Turkey. As his story moves between personal misadventures and bureaucratic ambition, the novel uses comedy and irony to probe how societies manufacture order, how institutions shape identity, and how “time” can become both a practical tool and a cultural myth. Tanpınar’s distinctive blend of modern European satirical sensibility with deep Ottoman-era sensibilities turns everyday details—objects, routines, and official language—into clues about memory, self-deception, and the human need to impose meaning on the passing hours. Ultimately, the Time Regulation Institute becomes less a plot device than a lens for examining progress, authority, and the stories people tell to survive change.
Available Editions
paperback
Penguin Books
Published Jan 1, 2013
401 pages
ISBN: 9780143106739
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Details
First Published
2013
Language
tur
Content Warnings
Content and trigger warnings for The Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar.