Cem Çelik

Cem Çelik is the protagonist and narrator of the novel. At the beginning of the story, Cem is a teenage boy living in Istanbul, Turkey. After his father disappears, due to political persecution, Cem takes a job as a welldigger’s apprentice in order to help raise money for his education. Thus, in the summer of 1986, when Cem is almost 17 tears old, he helps welldigger Master Mahmut dig a well in the rural town of Öngören. They form a bond similar to that of a father and son. Meanwhile, Cem becomes obsessed with a red-haired woman in her thirties who is an actress in a local theatre group. One night, Cem and the woman have sex. Later, after an accident on the well worksite, Cem believes that he may have killed Mahmut. Cem flees in fear.

Cem wants to be a writer, but he goes on...