Summary

Madonna in a Fur Coat tells the story of a young Turkish man named Raif Efendi and the profound impact the time he spent in Berlin in the early 1930s had on his emotional and professional development for the rest of his short life.

The story began in Ankara, Turkey, in the 1940s. A nameless narrator revealed that a man named Raif Efendi, who died several months ago, had left a great impression on him. The narrator recalled the circumstances that led to him meeting Raif.

The narrator lost his job as a bank clerk in Ankara and spent a long time unsuccessfully seeking work. Becoming despondent, the narrator began to avoid socializing with his friends because he felt so weighed-down by his unemployment and so repelled by the sympathy and pity he could sense in his friends. One night, a man named...