26/07/2026
The fact that this allegorical critique of mid-1950s Turkish society reads like a 21st-century workplace novel might be disturbing, but it's a key reason why it's worth your time.
While Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s compellingly narrated masterpiece meanders through the topics of spirituality, psychology, family, and love, its central theme is time, and one man’s attempt to commoditize it for profit 🕐🕑🕒
Originally serialized in 1954 and published as a complete novel in 1961, The Time Regulation Institute reflects its episodic creation in the way different topics evolve. Yet the narrative flow is never lost and the result is a deeply imaginative and poignant image of a society caught between rigid institutional norms and a loss of spiritual grounding.
We follow our narrator from his childhood fascination with clocks, discovering a story of the family that failed to fulfill a forebear's legacy. Spending his youth between a watchmaker’s workshop and a psychiatrist’s office, Hayri Irdal becomes a disappointed businessman who sees life as a burden and endless suffering.
✒️"This thing called 'I' was no more than a mess of desire, pain, and fear."
After years of unemployment, he accidentally gets appointed a VP of The Time Regulation Institute, a bizarre entrepreneurial undertaking that employs team members just because they're family and friends, completely rewrites the history of clock-making, and builds a grotesque corporate headquarters.
✨Incredibly witty, warm, and imaginative, this book explores the deepest human needs and desires, contrasting them with the expectations from society.
Tanpınar’s imaginative style and themes inspired generations of Turkish writers, including Orhan Pamuk, while painting an vivid portrait of Istanbul as it transforms under innovation.