"Happiness", the third novel by the famous composer and author of "The Great Eunuch of Constantinople", could be titled "The Novel of Modern Turkey".

Three people, among the millions of "anonymous" who do not write history, seek to unravel the knot of their fate and conquer the long-awaited happiness. With the zeal of a detective and the insight of a psychoanalyst, Zulfu Livaneli leads the reader to the truth of Meriem, the seventeen-year-old dreamy daughter who, after being raped by her uncle, is called to sacrifice herself to wash away the shame, Jamel, her young cousin, the soldier who returns to the village as a hero and is called to be the one to execute the punishment in the name of the family, and Irfan, the professor who is on the other side of the moon and by chance becomes the companion of the two children in a great adventure.

"Happiness" was the number 1 bestseller in Turkey for many months.