The novel tells the story of a group of twenty-something friends living in Boston and their never-ending quest for fulfillment. Omer, Abed and Piyu are three roommates. They are all foreigners in the United States. Omer is from Istanbul. He is a Ph.D. student in political science who adapts quickly to his new home, and falls in love with the bisexual, suicidal, intellectual chocolate maker Gail.
Though she is American it is Gail who represents "the foreigner" throughout the novel. She feels displaced in her homeland and everywhere.
This is an exhilarating rollercoaster ride of a novel--a breathless and vivid journey into the lives of a motley assortment of brilliant, obsessive, and often troubled young immigrants, and an American whom one of them marries. With its themes of displacement, its Boston-area setting, and its ease with academic topics, Shafak's novel suggests Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake with the amplifier cranked up all the way to eleven. A work replete with dazzling wordplay, an infatuation with pop culture, and a fearless intellect, The Saint of Incipient Insanities marks Elif Shafak as a compellingly original voice in 21st Century fiction."
- Adam Langer, author of Crossing California.
"Elif Shafak offers us an indelibly haunting portrait of contemporary America, in all its sexual/ethno/religious contortions. Goofy, sad, wise, and heart-breakingly funny, her novel is a bittersweet delight to read."
- Fernanda Eberstadt.
