'The Renovation' is a novel with a surrealist take on prison structures big and small

NPR's Book of the Day

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Arts, Books

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2026

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

There are many ways that a home renovation project can become a nightmare for all involved. But in The Renovation, narrator Dilara’s remodeling woes aren’t strictly financial or aesthetic—they’re absurdly surreal. When she finds her bathroom transformed into an armed Turkish prison cell, Dilara and her family must reckon with fragments of their past, present and future, all while fighting against the pace of time itself. In today’s episode, author Kenan Orhan joins NPR’s Scott Simon to discuss his debut novel, and how the concept of “prison” is a metaphor in far more ways than one.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. There's a prison cell in
0:06.9	Kannon-Orhan's debut novel, The Renovation. And it's a metaphor for a few different things,
0:11.7	political turmoil, personal memory, the idea of being exiled from your home nation. But it's also a
0:17.9	metaphor for being a caregiver, particularly of someone you love.
0:21.9	In this interview with Emperor Scott Simon, Orhan talks about being inspired by his own grandmother,
0:27.1	who was beginning to show signs of dementia just as he started writing this novel,
0:31.1	and how watching her unravel in front of him felt like a dissolving of his own past.
0:38.1	That's up ahead.
0:45.0	Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working to restore a balanced relationship between people and planet.
0:51.0	The Schmidt Family Foundation is part of the philanthropic organizations and initiatives
0:55.5	created and funded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt to work toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for
1:01.9	all. On the web at the Schmidt.org. There are lots of home renovation nightmares, but
1:07.7	none perhaps quite so chilling as when DeLara and her husband.
1:12.7	Both Turkish exiles living in Italy remodeled their bathroom.
1:17.2	Our narrator, DeLara, moves aside a tarp to see the finished bathroom and finds herself inside
1:23.0	a Turkish prison cell, complete with guards.
1:27.2	The guard, who really could have been my contractor in disguise, seemed genuinely shocked to see me.
1:32.8	What is this? he exclaimed in Turkish.
1:35.5	He paused with a stupefied look on his face.
1:38.0	Where am I? I responded in Turkish.
1:40.4	Are you sick? Salivary prison.
1:42.9	I was growing impatient.
	...

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