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Intro
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World begins immediately following the murder of its protagonist, Tequila Leila, a sex worker who has been abandoned in a dumpster just outside of Istanbul. The novel’s title refers to the amount of time that Leila’s brain remains active after her death, during which her consciousness is flooded with vivid, specific memories. These 10 minutes and 38 seconds compose Part One of the novel, as Leila’s mind spontaneously recalls the moments, people, and sensations that defined her existence.
Leila is born in Van, Turkey in 1947. Her father, Haroun, is a devout man with strict religious beliefs and ideals, hopeful his daughter will grow up to be “pure as water”—obedient, modest, and chaste. Her biological mother, Binnaz, struggles with mental illness. When Haroun allows his infertile first wife, Suzan, to raise Leila as her own, rather than Binnaz, the betrayal is so impactful that Binnaz’s relationship to reality is permanently fractured. Leila’s early years are marked by a sense of confusion and alienation, largely due to the oppressive atmosphere of her home. She grows up often caught between competing demands and expectations of Suzan and Binnaz, never fully certain of which woman is her true mother.
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As a child, Leila is sexually abused by her uncle. After the first time he rapes her, Leila falls ill, experiencing vivid hallucinations of her uncle appearing by her bedside. Desperate, her family seeks medical help from the Lady Pharmacist, who brings along her young son named Sinan. Sinan offers comfort to Leila during her illness, and they become lifelong friends.
Not long after, Leila’s brother Tarkan is born. When Tarkan is diagnosed with Down syndrome, Leila’s father views his condition as punishment from Allah. To atone, Haroun recommits himself to his Islamic faith, abandoning his work and enforcing stricter religious rules within his household. He impedes the women’s access to news and current events, banning newspapers and television programs alike. In rebellion, Leila dyes her hair and gets a small tattoo on her ankle. She struggles to fit in at school but finds support in Sinan, who shares the world news with her despite her father’s restrictions. Interested in wartime resistance movements called “sabotage broadcasts,” Sinan earns the nickname “Sabotage Sinan.”
One day, Sinan gifts Leila a hula hoop, which she hides from her family. When her father eventually catches her using it, dancing and singing along to Elvis’s music, he calls her a whore and forces her out of school. Leila grows despondent and increasingly detached from the world, and she begins inexplicably eating soil. When she subtly confides in Auntie Binnaz about Uncle’s abuse and explains the physical symptoms she’s recently experienced, Binnaz realizes that Leila had become pregnant, but she miscarried. When Haroun learns of these developments, he decides Leila will marry her younger cousin, Tolga, one of Uncle’s sons, leaving Leila feeling trapped, hopeless, and insignificant.
When Tarkan tragically passes away due to complications related to Down syndrome, Leila officially decides to leave home. Sinan helps her, giving her money, and she sets off for Istanbul, only to be robbed upon arrival. A seemingly kind man offers her a place to stay, but it is ultimately a trick, and she is trafficked into sexual enslavement. Homesick, Leila later tries to call her family, but her father demands she never call again. Her madam, Bitter Ma, is a tough, opportunistic woman who gradually develops a fondness for Leila. In this unfamiliar environment, Leila initially finds herself haunted by feelings of uncleanliness and despair, leading her to momentarily contemplate suicide. During this time, she meets a laborer, a young man with a captivating singing voice who says his name is Hiç—meaning “nothing.” The next time they meet, he has transitioned into a woman named Nalan, and the pair form a lifelong friendship. Leila also meets Jameelah, a woman from Somalia, and later, after a client with sulfuric acid attacks her, she develops a friendship with Zaynab122, the brothel custodian and fortune teller. She predicts that Leila will one day marry and leave the brothel wearing a beautiful wedding dress, a vision that Leila has a difficult time believing, though it offers her hope. Leila later meets D/Ali, an artist, student, and leftist revolutionary who often visits her at the brothel. They form a close bond, and Leila quickly realizes she has fallen in love. Before long, they marry.
After marrying, the pair move into a small flat where they begin to build a life together. D/Ali reads Leila communist pamphlets each morning, and Leila loves their life. In 1977, Leila and D/Ali join hundreds of thousands of protesters for the International Workers’ Day march in Taksim Square, which devolves into a massacre. Without warning, gunfire erupts from snipers posted at the Intercontinental Hotel, and Leila is separated from D/Ali. In the aftermath, she discovers that her husband was trampled to death.
In November 1990, Leila shares a drink with her last client at the Intercontinental Hotel. Leila suggests that her client—a gay man whose father hired Leila’s services in an attempt to convert his son’s sexuality—call his true lover to the hotel room instead, and he’s grateful for her kindness. As she leaves, she’s stopped by two men in a silver Mercedes who offer her money for her company. She agrees, sensing something is deeply wrong the moment she enters the vehicle. Ultimately, these men are revealed to be Leila’s murderers, two cousins on a holy mission to “cleanse” Istanbul’s streets by murdering sex workers. They collect porcelain angel figurines as symbols of the women they believe they’ve “saved” after each killing.
When Leila’s body is brought to the morgue, the examiner notes she was beaten and strangled, and her body left unclaimed by her family. However, her five friends hope they will be allowed to give her a proper funeral. Though denied this request by the hospital administrator, a sympathetic and helpful orderly named Kameel Effendi informs them that she has been buried in the Cemetery of the Companionless. Nalan proposes that the friends travel to the cemetery that very night to exhume Leila’s body. Eventually, they all agree.
In the Cemetery of the Companionless, the marginalized and forgotten are buried alongside murderers and bodies the authorities couldn’t identify. Here, Leila lies in grave number 7053. Finally locating the correct grave plot, the group digs her out, but as they attempt to leave, they accidentally alert nearby police to their presence. As they flee, dawn approaches, and the group panics about their next steps. Suddenly, Zaynab122 recalls that Leila never wanted to be buried: she wished to be released into the sea. Determined to fulfill their friend’s desire, they head for the Bosphorus Bridge.
Rushing toward the bridge and away from the pursuing police, Sinan and Nalan prepare to release Leila’s body into the water. When the police confront them with guns drawn, Nalan hesitates, but Sinan, in a moment of clarity and bravery, pushes Leila into the sea, even as he gets shot in the shoulder. In the water, Leila experiences spiritual freedom, and she meets the blue betta fish her family freed on the day of her birth. As she explores this underwater realm, she at last finds respite from the traumas of her previous life.
On what would have been Leila’s next birthday, her friends decorate her old flat in celebration, each now embracing a new life in her absence.
