An alluring novella that follows the sea’s retreat, a village’s withering, and an inventive woman’s response, The Ashes of the Forest is a powerful allegory about people’s interdependence on nature.

In Güzide Ertürk’s poetic novella The Ashes of the Forest, a young adventuress must bring back an ebb tide.

Azra lives in the Mossy Village. Eager and imaginative, she is prone to personifying nature. She feminizes the sea and calls her Aegean, and she cherishes Aegean’s gifts and powers. When a deceased sailor, Elmodas, floats in on the waves, his ghost follows Azra, asking questions about a past war. She befriends him despite the other villagers’ hesitation. But when Elmodas departs, the tide recedes further out than ever before, stranding sea urchins and drying out black moss. The villagers depend on fishing for their livelihoods, so many of Azra’s neighbors migrate; Azra chooses to stay behind in hopes of solving the problem.

The chapters function as alluring, extended sketches within the larger framework of the tale about the sea’s retreat. They are united by Azra, who both speaks and is spoken of, contextualizing her within her tight-knit community. Indeed, her daily life unfolds in concert with her neighbors’, with whom she shares colorful histories.

Their village is picturesque, fleshed out through mentions of bucolic rituals like making fig jam, tending to olive trees, and drinking coffee and hibiscus. Other descriptions make its atmosphere feel timeless: Sevim, the oldest woman on the island, wears colorful headscarves. Cultural references, including to Eid, help establish the village as a crossroads. The village’s charm is tempered by a few darker aspects. People’s occasional wariness toward strangers, for instance, hints at their provincial self-protectiveness. And encroaching climate-related problems, including wildfire, are implied to be consequences of Aegean’s withdrawal.

Time is handled in an uneven manner, though. More than seventeen months are said to pass between the sea’s initial retreat and the desert-like conditions it leaves behind, raising questions about why it takes Azra so long to respond. Still, Azra’s encounters with the people who tell her stories are a compelling guiding force. Sevim’s tale about the Persian mythological bird, Simurgh, and about a witch, Lilith, for instance, inspire Azra to then seek out a local pearl seller for additional help. His story, in turn, is a winding account of a monastery library, which leads toward Lilith once more; Azra is urged to seek her out, and a fairy-tale journey to Lilith’s castle follows. Azra’s dependence on others’ advice somewhat limits her agency, though. Further, the book works toward an abrupt conclusion in which an underexplained peace ritual has unintended, if provocative, results.

The Ashes of the Forest is an enchanting literary novella in which a young woman confronts loss and her changing homeland.

Reviewed by Karen Rigby · July 16, 2026