The Anthropologists

by Aysegül Savas
The Anthropologists cover
Good Books rating 4.15
Contemporary Fiction
Technical:
  • ID: 435
  • Added: 2025-09-11
  • Updated: 2025-09-18
  • ISBN: 9781398529915
  • Publisher: Simon and Schuster
  • Published: 2024-08-01
  • Formats: 14
  • Reviews: 4
Buy online
Waterstones
Paperback • £9.99–£14.99

Asya, a documentary filmmaker, and her husband Manu are forging a life together in a foreign city, removed from their families and familiar traditions. Through a series of apartment viewings, quiet conversations, and Asya’s observations of local park visitors, the novel meditates on how to create new rituals and a sense of belonging when the old ties are distant. The story captures the delicate balance of holding on and letting go as they build a shared future far from home. The Anthropologists is a soulful and elegant examination of love, identity, and community in a globalized world. With warmth, humor, and acute insight, Ayşegül Savaş portrays the complexities of young adulthood, the yearning for rootedness, and the subtle ways people connect and create meaning in everyday life. The novel’s vignette style and focus on small, intimate moments reveal the profound challenges and hopes of making a home in unfamiliar surroundings.

Reviews
The New York Times · 2025-09-12
enchanting 4.25

The novel beautifully celebrates the understated grace of ordinary life, capturing the enchanting nuances of a couple’s daily existence and their quest for belonging.

This review praises the book for its elegant portrayal of a couple’s everyday life, emphasizing the quiet enchantment found in their simple routines and interactions. It highlights the author’s ability to find profound meaning in what might seem unremarkable, portraying the characters' lives with warmth and subtlety. The reviewer notes that the novel’s charm lies in how it captures the unspoken complexities of love, home, and social expectations without grand drama, offering a deeply human and relatable narrative.

Quick quotes

    In “The Anthropologists,” Aysegul Savas celebrates the “unremarkable grace” of a couple's ordinary days.

    It's enchanting.

    This elegant portrait of an expat couple's day-to-day lives delves into the complexities of love, home and social expectations.

Books Are My Favourite and Best · 2025-09-12
reflective 4.00

The narrative delicately examines how a small social circle and the search for belonging shape the couple's fragile life in a foreign city, emphasizing the subtle customs and rituals that define home and family.

This review highlights the novel’s focus on the quiet details of daily life and the intimate social dynamics within a very small group of friends and acquaintances. The reviewer appreciates how the story is structured through vignettes that alternate between the couple's everyday experiences and Asya's documentary work in the local park, underscoring the theme of finding grace in the ordinary. The fragility of their life is a key tension, with small changes in relationships having significant emotional impact, reflecting the precariousness of their expatriate existence and their efforts to establish stability and identity.

Quick quotes

    The story plays out amongst this small group of people, as well as at the local park, where Asya, a documentarian, spends her days gathering footage about ‘daily life’, to ‘praise its unremarkable grace.’

    As the story gently unfolds, we become increasingly aware of the fragility of the couples’ life, predominantly because of their small social circle – a tiny change causes a seismic shift.

    Savaş explores what it means to create a home, and what constitutes ‘family’ when you are separated from relatives.

Goodreads · 2025-09-12
insightful 4.10

The novel insightfully explores the uncertain transition into adulthood and the search for identity and belonging in a foreign city, highlighting the fragile nature of the couple's life and their attempts to create a meaningful existence.

This review emphasizes how the story captures the liminal space between youth and adulthood, focusing on Asya and Manu's struggle to define themselves and establish roots in an unfamiliar urban environment. The author skillfully portrays the couple's sense of estrangement not only from the city but also from themselves, making the narrative resonate beyond immigrant experiences to anyone facing life transitions. The reviewer notes the novel’s strength in conveying the tension between infinite possibilities and constriction, as well as the delicate social fabric the protagonists try to weave around themselves in their new home.

Quick quotes

    After graduating from university, they are “playing out our adulthoods rather than committing to them.”

    She extends the appeal of the novel to not just immigrants, but to every person who is about to leave their childhood and college years behind.

    How, then, do they define themselves and “make a life, as some people called it.”

The Guardian · 2024-08-07
elegant 4.25

The narrative elegantly captures the nuanced daily lives of an expatriate couple, exploring themes of love, belonging, and societal expectations in subtle, graceful prose.

This review praises the novel for its delicate and elegant portrayal of an expat couple’s everyday existence, focusing on the emotional and social complexities they face. The story is appreciated for how it delves into the ordinary moments that reveal deeper truths about relationships and the sense of home, portraying the characters’ navigation of love and social norms with refined subtlety and grace.

Quick quotes

    This elegant portrait of an expat couple's day-to-day lives delves into the complexities of love, home and social expectations.

    The Anthropologists celebrates the 'unremarkable grace' of a couple's ordinary days.

    It's enchanting.

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