This wry and visceral debut novel follows a young Turkish-American woman who, rather than grieving her father's untimely death, seeks treatment for a stubborn headache and grows obsessed with a centuries-old theory of medicine.
Twenty-year-old Sibel is fascinated by the human body. She's hoping to be a doctor and plans to spend her summer in Istanbul studying for the MCAT and visiting her father's grave. Instead, she finds herself self-diagnosing her own possible chronic illness with the four humors theory of ancient medicine. Is an imbalance of blood, bile, choler, and phlegm the cause of her physical and emotional turmoil?
Also on Sibel's mind: her blond American boyfriend who accompanies her to Turkey; her energetic but distraught younger sister; and her devoted grandmother, who, Sibel comes to learn, carries a harrowing secret.
Delving into her family's history, the narrative weaves through periods of political unrest in Turkey, from military coups to the Gezi Park protests. Told with pathos and humor, Sibel's search for strange and unusual cures is disrupted as she begins to see how she might heal herself through the care of others, including her own family and its long-fractured relationships. "The Four Humors is a quiet, startling book that will stay with you long after you turn the final page. Sibel holds grief and guilt in her body, and as she reconnects with her homeland, she will uncover deep secrets and profound truths that will change her forever. Mina Seçkin has written a poignant and penetrating meditation on how we take care-of ourselves, our stories, and our families." -Crystal Hana Kim, author of If You Leave Me
"Set in a stunning evocation of contemporary Turkey, The Four Humors is spellbinding. With sensitivity and insight, Mina Seçkin weaves the entanglements of romantic love and the complexities of familial love throughout this exploration of cultural identity. This debut novel is one for our time." -Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of Rabbits for Food
"The Four Humors reminds us that the most startling love letters-to people, to cities, to fading times and places-are as gentle, wry, and intelligent as they are deeply felt. A beautiful, unpretending book." -Merve Emre, author of The Ferrante Letters and The Personality Brokers
"Soulful and tender, honest, but never cruel. The Four Humors is a debut that doesn't feel like a debut. With the wisdom of a writer beyond her years, Mina Seçkin has crafted a novel that delicately and lyrically explores the body and everything it holds-the blood, phlegm, bile, choler, all the bodily fluids and memories and generational trauma, the joy that we keep moving and breathing despite it-everything that make us the flawed, beautiful humans that we are." -Jean Kyoung Frazer, author of Pizza Girl
"Wise and quirky, searching and warm––a novel full of heart, alive with the humors." ––Ayşegül Savaş, author of Walking on the Ceiling
"I was completely transported by this novel-as if I'd been taken along with Seçkin's heroine on a darkly beautiful holiday. I loved the fierce, delicate voice of Sibel-a young woman determined to uncover the mysteries of her body, as well as the mysteries of her family. Seçkin is a gifted and natural storyteller, but she's also willing to show us the ways we use stories-of politics and history, in social media, in the bedroom and at parties-to hide and heal. In doing so, The Four Humors offers a captivating and profound portrait of a family unmoored by secrets and love." -Rebecca Godfrey, author of Under the Bridge Mina Seçkin is a Turkish American writer from Brooklyn. Her work has been published in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She serves as managing editor of Apogee Journal, and The Four Humors is her first novel.
