Forty-Nine Ways to Leave
Forty-nine stories — by Hulki Okan Tabak
Read in the order they were written, follow a thread, or open any door below. Every story is a way to leave.
Read from the first → The whole book on one page Recurring threads
Every story can also be heard — a machine reading in a neural voice, the author’s words unchanged. It is an accessibility floor, not an audiobook: the written text is the book.
- 1 Love Falls Into Jade Jade collected breakups the way botanists collect specimens.
- 2 The Third Wedding The invitations said: "Mariana & Viktor request the pleasure of your company at their wedding." It did not say which…
- 3 The Trouble with Cats Kassim had touched seven cats.
- 4 The Court of Serena The court convened at 3 a.m.
- 5 The Coffee Vendor's Memory Khalil Hassan has sold coffee from the same cart in Karaköy for forty-two years.
- 6 Instructions for Disappearing She wrote them on the back of a boarding pass, gate B7, the 22:40 to nowhere in particular.
- 7 The Body in the Living Room Lucia came home at 3:47 — exact, because she counted.
- 8 The Reincarnation of KEV-7 The meteor hit a field outside Dobříš, thirty-seven kilometers south of Prague, on a Tuesday at 4:17 in the morning.
- 9 KEV-7 Falls in Love The problem with falling in love, KEV-7 determined, was that it involved falling, which implied gravity, which implied…
- 10 KEV-7 Attends a Funeral The invitation said "Celebration of Life" which KEV-7 interpreted literally, and this was the first mistake.
- 11 Sabah He wakes at 6:55. He checks his phone.
- 12 The Woman Who Watched the Ferries Hafize had lived in the same apartment in Karaköy for forty years.
- 13 The Cartography of Sorrow The book had been conscious for approximately two hundred and thirty years.
- 14 The Guest The apartment in Alfama had a guest no one had invited.
- 15 The Devil Visits the Clockmaker The gentleman who entered Franz Neumann's shop on a Tuesday afternoon was impeccably dressed, excessively polite, and…
- 16 The Replacement The street was wrong.
- 17 Both of Her Lucia is fourteen now and both of her want different things.
- 18 The Exhibit of Unlived Lives The gallery opened without announcement on a Tuesday in October, in a building in Prague that had been empty for nine…
- 19 The Unfinished Season Noor was not available.
- 20 The Scorekeeper Column A: Date. Column B: Who cooked.
- 21 The Interruption She was about to say something important.
- 22 What They Said at the Table "How was your day?" "Fine." "Fine." She put her fork down.
- 23 The Daughter's City You are twelve and you have opinions about shoes.
- 24 The Night Noor’s Boxes Opened The boxes opened themselves at 3 a.m.
- 25 The Appointment On the morning of his death, Tomas Braga received a letter confirming that his application for a parking permit had…
- 26 The Cosmonaut Who Forgot Dmitri Volkov was seventy-three years old and he could not remember whether he had been to space.
- 27 What the Phone Remembers 07:14 — Screenshot saved 07:14 — Screenshot saved 07:15 — Screenshot saved 07:22 — Photo deleted (IMG_4481.jpg: dinner…
- 28 Recipe for a City You Will Leave For my daughter, who is leaving on Tuesday and who asked me, over the phone, in a voice that was trying very hard not…
- 29 The Astronomer’s Wife Her husband mapped the sky.
- 30 The Taxidermist's Garden In a garden behind a building in Shimokitazawa — the same street where, years ago, someone had drawn spirals on the…
- 31 The Collector He arrived in a new city on a Thursday.
- 32 What the Skin Remembers You find them at 3 a.m.
- 33 Permissions App X requests access to your camera.
- 34 The Translator's Mother His mother is losing Turkish.
- 35 What Remained of the Voice Her mother's voice disappeared on a Thursday in March.
- 36 Dr. Patel's Seventeenth Case The file on Dr. Rajesh Patel's desk was labeled CASE #17 — SPECIES DYSPHORIA (AVIAN).
- 37 The Last Ferry The last ferry from Kadıköy leaves at 23:30.
- 38 The Department of Miracles The Ministry occupied three floors of a building in Ankara that smelled of cigarette smoke and photocopy toner and the…
- 39 The Myth of Leda, Retold in a Hotel in São Paulo You check in at midnight.
- 40 What the Maid Found The sheets were warm when she stripped them.
- 41 The Weight A man woke up lighter.
- 42 The Fever She could not stop sweating.
- 43 Théo's Last Review Théo left reviews on library cards.
- 44 The Library of Babel, Karaköy Branch The branch opened on a Monday.
- 45 Inventory of a Life 1 passport (expired) 1 ticket, no destination, no date 3 photographs: a woman, a door, a cat 1 notebook, leather,…
- 46 The Midnight Cartographer Every city has a second city that exists only between midnight and 4 a.m.
- 47 The Bosphorus Holds The water is 12 degrees.
- 48 The Ferryman's Confession I have been carrying the dead across the Bosphorus for longer than the strait has had a name.
- 49 Jade at the End of the World The end of the world, Jade discovered, was a café.