The Time Regulation Institute

A literary discovery: an uproarious tragicomedy of modernization, in its first-ever English translation
 
Perhaps the greatest Turkish novel of the twentieth century, being discovered around the world only now, more than fifty years after its first publication, The Time Regulation Institute is an antic, freewheeling send-up of the modern bureaucratic state.
 
At its center is Hayri Irdal, an infectiously charming antihero who becomes entangled with an eccentric cast of characters—a television mystic, a pharmacist who dabbles in alchemy, a dignitary from the lost Ottoman Empire, a “clock whisperer”—at the Time Regulation Institute, a vast organization that employs a hilariously intricate system of fines for the purpose of changing all the clocks in Turkey to Western time. Recounted in sessions with his psychoanalyst, the story of Hayri Irdal’s absurdist misadventures plays out as a brilliant allegory of the collision of tradition & modernity, of East & West, infused with a poignant blend of hope for the promise of the future & nostalgia for a simpler time. 

For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history & across genres & disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions & notes by distinguished scholars & contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

AHMET HAMDI TANPINAR (1901–62) is considered one of the most significant Turkish novelists of the twentieth century. Also a poet, short-story writer, essayist, literary historian, & professor, he created a unique cultural universe in his work, combining a European literary voice with the Ottoman sensibilities of the Near East.