It has been described as "probably the most eminent novel of twentieth-century Turkish literature": this reference is due to a UNESCO survey,[1] which goes on: "it poses an earnest challenge to even the most skilled translator with its kaleidoscope of colloquialisms and sheer size."

V (2008) 99); into Greek, as ΑΠΟΣΥΝΑΓΩΓΟΙ, translated from Turkish by Νίκη Σταυρίδη, poetry sections by Δημήτρης Μαύρος, Gutenberg Editio Minor 34, 2022.

He joined Istanbul State Engineering and Architecture School (now, Yildiz Technical University) as a faculty member, and became an associate professor in 1975.

Atay was of a generation deeply committed to the westernising, scientific, secular culture encouraged by the revolution of the 1920s; he had no nostalgia for the corruption of the late Ottoman Empire, though he knew its literature, and was in particular well versed in Divan poetry.

His subject matter is frequently the detritus of Western culture — translations of tenth-rate historical novels, Hollywood fantasy films, trivialities of encyclopaedias, Turkish tangos.

[4][5] Since the publication of Tutunamayanlar many Turkish novelists have broken away from traditional styles, first the slightly older writer Adalet Ağaoğlu, then others including Orhan Pamuk and Latife Tekin.