'The Renovation' is a novel with a surrealist take on prison structures big and small

Summary

NPR's Book of the Day – “The Renovation” by Kanan Orhan

Episode Date: February 25, 2026
Host: Andrew Limbong (A)
Guest: Kanan Orhan (D), interviewed by Scott Simon (C)

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Episode Overview

This episode centers around Kanan Orhan’s debut novel, The Renovation, a surreal and metaphor-laden reflection on prisons—both political and personal. What begins as a home improvement project for Turkish exiles in Italy spirals into a deeply imaginative exploration of exile, memory, and the emotional confines of caregiving. The interview weaves together literary insight, personal experience, and political context, providing a rich introduction to Orhan’s themes and inspirations.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Surrealist Premise of “The Renovation”

• Summary of the Premise
  • Dilara, a Turkish exile in Italy, discovers her renovated bathroom has transformed into a Turkish prison cell—complete with guards. This sets up the novel's central metaphor of being trapped, both physically and emotionally.
• Notable Author Reading (02:08)

  "Massaging jets? Ha ha. No, this is a prison. But what's it doing in my bathroom?"
  (Orhan, reading from the novel at 01:34)

2. Exile and the Burden of Memory

• Family Background and Political Context
  • Dilara, her father (who has Alzheimer's), and her husband are Turkish intellectuals forced to flee their home due to political persecution following government crackdowns in Turkey. The move is one of necessity rather than choice.

    “They decided to flee Turkey after her father was attacked by a political thug.” (Orhan, 02:56)

• Longing for the Past
  • Dilara is depicted as obsessed with the memories and lost days of Istanbul—highlighting the enduring emotional cost of exile.

    "She misses a lot of the memories, a lot of the friends, a lot of the family back home." (Orhan, 03:19)

3. The Prison as Magical Space and Respite

• Transformation of Prison into Comfort
  • Against all logic, Dilara finds comfort and community in the fantastical prison cell, surrounded by Turkish-speaking inmates and enjoying “nuggets of magic” from her memories.
  • The cell becomes a place where nostalgia and longing create their own bittersweet refuge.

    “The cell itself starts to provide these nuggets of magic for her. Whether it’s a delicious cup of coffee from her favorite cafe or sweet rolls of marzipan … she convinces herself it’s worth it being confined to a place.” (Orhan, 03:49–04:47)

4. Portrait of a Father and Political Bravery

• Father’s Character
  • Orhan describes Dilara’s father as a figure of political courage—imperfect but deeply principled in his resistance to authoritarianism.

    “I’m always impressed by the people of Turkey who will risk prison and even worse, to state their opinions against rising authoritarianism, against democratic backsliding.” (Orhan, 04:57)

5. Dementia as Loss—and the Caregiver’s Prison

• Personal Inspiration and Emotional Weight
  • Inspired by Orhan’s own grandmother’s decline into dementia, the novel captures the ripple effects of memory loss on family identity.

    “She started showing some signs of memory loss pretty near to when I started writing this book. … She kind of starts to forget those moments … to the point where I start to question whether or not I’m remembering my relatives correctly.” (Orhan, 05:45–06:53)

• Caregiving as a Prison
  • The narrative draws parallels between political confinement and the emotional confines of full-time caregiving.

    “There are actually two prisons in this book. … But what she couldn’t flee is the prison of care. … Watching them unravel in front of you while also having to take care of them is insanely difficult.” (Orhan, 07:08)

6. Hüzün: Turkish Melancholy and Nostalgia

• Unpacking Hüzün
  • Orhan discusses the Turkish word 'hüzün,' a kind of yearning and cherished melancholy for what is irretrievably lost.

    “It’s a longing for things that are missed and missed in a way that perhaps you can’t surmount, but are worth missing. … We become aware of our own mortality in a way. But it makes those moments… all the sweeter, I think.” (Orhan, 07:51–08:42)

7. Personal Stakes in Writing

• Author’s Own Grief and Fear
  • Orhan notes the process of channeling his own fears and grief about the current state of Turkey into the novel.

    “This was very much my angers at the regime … but also this, this deep fear and sense of loss that kind of no matter what happens now … I’ll never actually be able to go back to the Turkey that I knew.” (Orhan, 08:46–09:54)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Prison-as-Metaphor:

  “It occupies a space that’s an impossible space. … Not exactly an inviting bathroom.”
  (Orhan, 02:24)

• On Exile’s Unfinished Grief:

  "We're both 10 year strangers from each other now. 12 year strangers. ... It's become a gloomier but still beloved place for me."
  (Orhan, 09:54)

• On Dementia and Memory:

  "She started showing some signs of memory loss ... and she’s kind of misremembering them to the point where I start to question whether or not I’m remembering my relatives correctly."
  (Orhan, 05:45–06:53)

• On Hüzün:

  "It’s a longing for things that are missed and missed in a way that perhaps you can’t surmount, but are worth missing."
  (Orhan, 07:56)

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Key Timestamps

• 00:02 – Introduction to the episode/theme
• 01:34 – Orhan reads from the novel; the bathroom-prison scene
• 02:56 – Family background, political exile
• 03:41 – Prison’s surprising comforts; nostalgia for Turkey
• 04:47 – Character of Dilara's father, political courage
• 05:45 – Dementia in the family and its effect on memories
• 07:08 – The double metaphor of prisons (political and caregiving)
• 07:50–08:42 – The meaning and resonance of ‘hüzün’
• 08:46 – Orhan’s personal connection and grief over Turkey’s political situation
• 09:54 – Closing thanks and reflections

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Tone and Language

The discussion is thoughtful and intimate, balancing literary exploration with direct references to the author’s family experiences and the broader political climate in Turkey. Orhan's tone is reflective, candid, and tinged with both longing and clear-eyed observation. The conversation moves naturally between the surreal narrative of the novel and the deeply real emotions underlying its themes.

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Summary Takeaway

Kanan Orhan’s The Renovation is introduced as a darkly surreal but deeply empathetic meditation on exile, memory, and the invisible prisons—political and personal—that shape our lives. Drawing directly from his family’s history and contemporary Turkish politics, Orhan uses the fantastical transformation of a bathroom into a prison cell to explore the pain of displacement, the ache of lost time, and the bittersweet beauty of nostalgia. The interview richly illuminates the novel’s complexities and the author’s own emotional journey.

Transcript

[A]

Hey, it's Emperor's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. There's a prison cell in Kanan Orhan's debut novel, the Renovation, and it's a metaphor for a few different political turmoil, personal memory, the idea of being exiled from your home nation. But it's also a metaphor for being a caregiver, particularly of someone you love. In this interview with npr, Scott Simon, Orhan talks about being inspired by his own grandmother, who was beginning to show signs of dementia just as he started writing this novel, and how watch watching her unravel in front of him felt like a dissolving of his own past. That's up ahead.

[B]

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[C]

Lots of home renovation nightmares, but none perhaps quite so chilling as when Dilara and her husband, both Turkish exiles living in Italy, remodeled their bathroom. Our narrator Dilara, moves aside a tarp to see the finished bathroom and finds herself inside a Turkish prison cell complete with guards.

[D]

The guard, who really could have been my contractor in disguise, seemed genuinely shocked to see me. What is this? He exclaimed in Turkish. He paused with a stupefied look on his face. Where am I? I responded in Turkish. Are you sick? Silivri prison. I was growing impatient. That's not right. This is supposed to be a waterfall shower with two heads and massaging jets and a marble bench. Massaging jets? Ha ha. No, this is a prison. But what's it doing in my bathroom? I asked. He looked into the cell and frowned. Now, how did they mess up like that?

[C]

Kanan Orhan, reading from his debut novel the Renovation. He joins us now from Kansas City. Thank you so much for being with us.

[D]

Oh, it's my delight.

[C]

Prison inside a bathroom. It's quite a design feature. What's it look like?

[D]

It's a little bit magical, this prison. It occupies a space that's an impossible space. Of course, her little en suite closet that got turned into a bathroom ends up growing and growing and growing into salivary prison, which is an actual prison in Turkey. It's a maximum security, so not Exactly. An inviting bathroom.

[C]

And they renovate the bathroom in the first place because Dilara's father has Alzheimer's and is living with them. Help us understand this family.

[D]

So Dilara and her father and her husband are largely kind of Turkish intellectuals who, in the rising authoritarianism over the 20 teens, have found themselves sort of in the crosshairs of the government crackdown. And they decided to flee Turkey after her father was attacked by a political thug.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

So I think a lot of who Dalara is is stuck in the past. She's obsessed with the halcyon days of Istanbul. She misses a lot of the memories, a lot of the friends, a lot of the family back home. And so moving for her was a political necessity rather than something she desired.

[C]

Against all expectation, does Dilara begin to find a kind of respite in her prison cell?

[D]

Yes. She really gloms onto this obsession with being back in Turkey, which, of course, might seem incredibly foreign to us, wanting to spend time in a prison cell. But after 10 years in Italy and not really engaging, speaking in Turkish, not really thinking in Turkish anymore, missing the sights, the sounds, the smells and tastes of Istanbul, suddenly she finds herself surrounded by some other inmates who all speak Turkish, who know what's going on in the country. She finds a lot of camaraderie in these people who start filling up the prison cells around her. And more than that, the cell itself starts to provide these nuggets of magic for her. Whether it's a delicious cup of coffee from her favorite cafe or sweet rolls of marzipan that are just like her favorite pastage in Istanbul, she convinces herself that it's worth it being confined to a place.

[C]

Let me ask about the glimpses we get of her father in the past. He seems like quite an engaging and even noble person.

[D]

Father is someone who I would aspire to be. He has his. His shortcomings. He's not exactly the perfect father, but he's someone who's very politically aware and very comfortable, kind of voicing his opinions against an authoritarian regime. I'm always impressed by the people of Turkey who will risk prison and even worse, to state their opinions against rising authoritarianism, against democratic backsliding. I'm incredibly privileged, writing as I am in America about these things. So it's an impressive thing, I think, to be in a place and to face the dangers of speaking your voice.

[C]

You also write very movingly about dementia. How do you know about this part of the book?

[D]

My grandmother, who was the one who emigrated with my grandfather to America from Istanbul, and who we've all kind of put a lot of our trust in the past in. We use her as a source for remembering Istanbul after we hadn't been for many years. She started showing some signs of memory loss pretty near to when I started writing this book. And it became suddenly very terrifying to me, this person who tells me stories of being a three year old in a flotation device in the sea, and we're all having fun and we're all getting tan and our hair is becoming blond, eating ice cream on the shore. And then suddenly she kind of starts to forget those moments and she starts remembering parts of Istanbul that I do explicitly remember. And she's kind of misremembering them to the point where I start to question whether or not I'm remembering my relatives correctly, whether or not I remember the way my cousin was. All of us were suddenly a little jarred by this dissolving of our past.

[C]

As the novel goes on, it's hard not to wonder if the prison you describe is just not an expression of the political tumult in Turkey, but also of the personal tumult inside Dilara's family.

[D]

It is. There are actually two prisons in this book. There's the political prison Dilara fled with her family from Istanbul, but what she couldn't flee is the prison of care. It's very difficult to be a caregiver in healthcare, but I think doing it for your own relatives is very different and very demanding. And watching them kind of unravel in front of you while also having to take care of them is insanely difficult, especially in the duality of how they used to raise you.

[C]

I have read about a Turkish word. I'll need your help in pronouncing it Huzoon.

[D]

Huzoon.

[C]

I wrote down what I found out it's supposed to mean, but why don't you tell me?

[D]

It's one of those fun little words that I think people sort of over sensationalize how untranslatable it is. But it's this. It's a longing for things that are missed and missed in a way that perhaps you can't surmount, but are worth missing. They're worth collecting and holding on to and remembering them. It affects all of us deeply, whether we call it melancholy or nostalgia or Huzoon. I think we all have moments in our lives where, with great clarity, we become aware of a past and we become aware of our own mortality in a way. But it makes those moments, those things that we remember tenderly, all the sweeter I think.

[C]

And do you feel that for Turkey, your life in Turkey?

[D]

I do. It's a. It was difficult writing this book in regard to that because there was a lot of my own fear and a lot of my own grief in this book that I generally, until writing this, wasn't ever a huge fan of doing. I generally like to write about other people, but this was very much my angers at the regime, my angers at the policies that seemed to be destroying Turkey behind my back, but also this, this deep fear and sense of loss that kind of no matter what happens now, no matter how hard I hold on to the memories of the past, no matter how drastic a political change might be in store for Turkey, no matter what happens to this regime when it's finally ousted, I'll never actually be able to go back to the Turkey that I knew. We're both 10 year strangers from each other now. 12 year strangers. I think in the wake of not going back for so long, it's become a gloomier but still beloved place for me.

[C]

Kinan Orhan his debut novel, the Renovation thank you so much for being with us.

[D]

Oh, the pleasure was all mine.

[B]

Foreign.

[E]

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