The shape of the book

Five literary parts; six intervals in this companion

The five parts

Registration contains Stories 1-12; The Rate, 13-26; Continuation, 27-39; Corrections, 40-52; Visiting Hours, 53-59 and the unnumbered title story. The registration form precedes them; the separate Duration of stay field follows the final story. The guide’s six intervals do not create a new six-part order.

Names and likenesses

Among those named independently of The Naming are Meral, Sava, Idris, Esen, Cem, Nuri, Nadir, Rauf, Lida and Suna. Others remain known by a room, an occupation or a ticket. The Naming proposes and withdraws names; its proposals do not settle identities elsewhere. A returning object or animal can connect scenes without identifying everyone beside it.

What remains open

The far side, the works' purpose, the cost of the cat's speech, the silenced hour and the final visitor's identity are not supplied here. Nor is the opposition assigned one leader or one moral character. Faith can bring food, courage or company without resolving the supernatural.

The untranslated page

Story 13 remains in Esperanto. Its diagrams examine form, repeated elements and its place in the collection. They do not translate its sentences into English or Turkish. The guide can point toward that page without claiming to remove the reader's distance from it.