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A review by jdscott50
The Applicant by Nazlı Koca
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The ominous cover resembles a popular tale retold many times, Let the Right One In. This a vampire novel and movie. A vampire cannot enter unless they are invited. In Nazli Kocha's novel, The Applicant, immigrants are treated like vampires who only seek to drain a country's resources. Of course, the true story is that they are the lifeblood in which a community can thrive. We have stopped seeing things that way, as this book explores.
In Berlin, on a student visa, her final thesis is rejected, and she is forced to appeal with the university and in German courts. She has only months to find a way to stay in the country. Forced to subsist as a cleaner, she also tries to obliterate herself with drugs, alcohol, and dancing, as we see how she and others survive in a country that clearly does not want them.
In Berlin, on a student visa, her final thesis is rejected, and she is forced to appeal with the university and in German courts. She has only months to find a way to stay in the country. Forced to subsist as a cleaner, she also tries to obliterate herself with drugs, alcohol, and dancing, as we see how she and others survive in a country that clearly does not want them.