Unhemmed

One factory. One community. One day that changes everything.

Set in a clothing factory in 1980s East London, Unhemmed is an intimate and moving work of literary fiction that follows the lives of a Turkish diaspora community stitched together by hard work, unspoken truths, and fragile dreams.

Aysel arrives in London with her husband, Tarık, intending to stay for one year, to work, to save, and to return to their families and lives in Türkiye. But when their plans change unexpectedly, Aysel finds herself weighing a life far different from the one she imagined.

Around her, others carry secrets of their own. Suzan Hanım, their agoraphobic landlady, has built invisible walls around herself that her daughter Meral is quietly, painfully trying to dismantle. Savaş, a passionate socialist scarred by the 1980 military coup in Türkiye, carries the weight of that history in his body. Bertan, the boss's devout son, is navigating a crisis of faith and identity that will have consequences for everyone. And Nazan, a second-generation daughter preparing for an arranged marriage, is beginning to ask questions that no one around her is ready to answer.

Told across multiple perspectives over a single fateful Friday, Friday the 13th, October 1989, Unhemmed weaves together the private lives of workers who have made East London their home while never quite leaving the places they came from. It is a novel about what we carry across borders: love, duty, grief, and the particular loneliness of building a life in a language not your own.

Warm, funny, and deeply humane, Unhemmed is a celebration of the Turkish diaspora and a testament to the women who held communities together through sheer will and quiet courage. For readers of Elif Shafak, Kamila Shamsie, and Monica Ali.