An obese woman and her lover, a dwarf, are sick of being stared at wherever they go and so decide to reverse roles. The man goes out wearing make up and the woman draws a moustache on her face. But whilst the woman wants to hide away from the world, the man meets the stares from passers-by head on, compiling his 'Dictionary of Gazes' to explore the boundaries between appearance and reality.
The narrative of The Gaze is intertwined with the dwarf's dictionary entries and the story of a bizarre freak-show organized in Istanbul in the 1880s as the author considers the damage which can be inflicted by our simple desire to look at other people.

Review:

Beautifully evoked (The Times)

Original and compelling (TLS)

Plays with ideas of beauty and ugliness like they're Rubik's cubes (Helen Oyeyemi)

Entertaining and affecting (Publishers’ Weekly)

Elif Shafak is the best author to come out of Turkey in the last decade (Orhan Pamuk)

Beautifully evoked (The Times The Times)

Original and compelling (TLS TLS)

Plays with ideas of beauty and ugliness like they're Rubik's cubes (Helen Oyeyemi Helen Oyeyemi)

Entertaining and affecting (Publishers’ Weekly Publishers’ Weekly)

Elif Shafak is the best author to come out of Turkey in the last decade (Orhan Pamuk Orhan Pamuk)

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