"The Twenty-Five Seasons Left for Me" is a novel that contains two very special days that unfold when an ordinary businessman and father of two goes down to a country villa alone and meets the eccentric farmer Karl.
When you live a busy life and question whether you are going in the wrong direction, when you run like a racehorse toward your goal but you don't know what is in your heart, when you suddenly realize that it has been a long time since you last looked up at the sky, when you are confused as to whether you have already gone in one direction for too long, this book becomes the perfect signpost to guide you back to the pure essence of life.

The protagonist, 'I', swims naked in the lake with Karl, picks out potatoes by hand, and cares for a kitten that has lost its mother, and has a feeling that that weekend will forever change the rest of the twenty-five summers that lie ahead.
Those two days were a time when I felt with my heart, not my head, that everything I needed in life was there from the beginning.
The questions and answers we ask each other and ourselves are the essence of life, and cannot be answered indirectly or in vain.
The simple yet difficult truth that if you know what you truly want in life, there is no need to wander aimlessly trying to meet the world's expectations gently seeps into their conversation.

Being able to escape into nature on weekends was a privilege, but even here, like today, there were many times when I couldn't find peace of mind.
I rarely found peace of mind, and even then it usually lasted only a few minutes.
It was because work always occupied my mind, even though it was out of sight, and my mind was never at peace.
I used to be happy just lounging around all day and doing nothing, but as my career progressed and I got a new phone, I became more and more accessible and available.
--- pp.8-9

There is always something to do.
As if life isn't about living, but about getting things done.
I walked for about 30 minutes without even meeting anyone by chance or remembering where I turned off the road.
But one frustrating and burdensome fact became clear.
That was the feeling I had somewhere along the way in life taken a wrong turn and lost the compass of my soul.
Just a few years ago, I was happy, free, and loved what I did, both in my personal life and my career.
But as the years passed, obligations increased and freedom decreased.
It gradually became like that without me even knowing it.
I became someone who was optimized to put work, recognition, and making money at the center of my life.
I became strict with myself, rarely satisfied, and restless and resolute in everything.
I lived my life driven by deadlines and the expectations of others and myself.
I wanted what I didn't have, not what I had.

--- pp.10-11

He said that in the brain of a tired person, thoughts always go around the same path, and that this vicious cycle must be broken.
So sometimes you have to do something special.
I thought for a moment about what could possibly happen.
Then I remembered the quiet lake between the forest and our family cottage.
I usually just passed by, but never thought about swimming there early in the morning.
There were no swimsuits or towels and the water was too cold.
But I thought it could be a little adventure that would take me out of my daily routine.
(syncopation)
The thought was fascinating.
I headed towards the lake.
--- pp.11-12

A man, completely naked and soaking wet, as if he had just come out of the lake, came out of the bushes and approached me.
Tall, slender, and erect, with a red nose and thick gray hair, mischievous eyes, and a lovely smile.
He looked to be in his mid-60s.
“Oh my, did you fall out of bed too? You woke up so early,” he asked with a wet face.
“No, I fell through the cracks in life.” These words rolled out of my mouth.
It's still a mystery to me why I gave such an impulsive answer back then.
Because it wasn't my specialty to immediately open up to a stranger who appeared in the bushes.

--- p.14

“If I could live my life over again, I would make more mistakes in the next life.
I will stop trying to be perfect and be more relaxed.
You'll be a little more crazy than before, and you'll take a lot of things lightly.
I wouldn't try to live that healthily.
I will have more adventures, travel more, watch more sunsets, climb more mountains, and swim more rivers.
I was one of those smart people who thought I should live every moment without wasting it.
Of course, there were happy moments, but if I could start my life over again, I would enjoy the beauty of each moment more.
If you don't know yet that life is made up of just moments like these, I urge you to remember this now.
If I could live again, I would go barefoot from early spring to late fall.
If I still had life left, I would play with my children more.
But look… … .
I am now 85 years old and I know I will die soon.”
--- p.27

“While she was talking, something inside me changed.
Aneta was someone who often stayed by people's side when they left this world.
What she was talking about was the essence of life.
What is truly important in life? This question people ask themselves at the end of their lives has deeply resonated with me.
Why couldn't I live my own life? Why was meeting other people's expectations so important?
Why did I spend so much time working for money instead of with the people and things that truly meant something to me?
But there was also this question:
Why didn't I just allow myself to do what I love more often?
Why didn't I try to take more adventures in life? What bad things would have happened if I had?"
--- p.34

If that were the case, I would have just left the house, rolled down the car window for a moment, said “goodbye,” and then my thoughts would have already been elsewhere.
Later, I would tell my family about that strangely started day, and maybe a week later, I would think about it again between my packed schedule.
But if you're a child, after a few hours of being with someone, you might exclaim,
"Karl is my best friend! Let's hang out together again tomorrow." Without any prejudice, with a passionate and open heart.
But like many people, somewhere along the path to adulthood, I abandoned my pure curiosity about others.
--- p.39

After I turned the potatoes around and admired them, I asked him.
“Haven’t you ever planted any other crops in all those years? Like lettuce or other vegetables?”
"yes.
Not even once.
“I just changed the farmland,” Karl answered.
“Farming is like life.
There are so many possibilities.
You can raise cattle, grow fruit, or sell straw bales.
You can do anything.
All kinds of people will give you different advice, and they'll all have ideas to give you.
At first, everything sounds right and logical, and of course, it's all said with good intentions.
Above all, the sentence about not hanging on to just one place is valid outside of here as well.
But ultimately, you have to make the decision alone.
At some point, I realized that I needed to stop pressuring myself and focus on what was important to me, what I was truly interested in, what I enjoyed, and what I knew well.
Something that isn't swept away by the mood of the times, something you want today but won't disappear tomorrow, something you can live frugally but safely.
Well, that's how I settled on potatoes."
--- pp.45-46

“You probably won’t believe me,” Karl interjected.
“The other day, a mother of a horseback riding child was sitting here, and she refused Johanna’s fantastic homemade pesto pasta.
“You said you were working on coal or something.”
“That’s it.” Johanna corrected him with a smile.
“Just keep your carbs to a minimum,” he said, shaking his head and adding that these days, four-year-olds know terms like flexitarian and stevia as basic as they used to know cheese, cocoa, and biscuits.

--- p.56

Johanna began to describe, like a girl about to go on her first picnic, the most precious dream of her life: to ride a horse on a volcanic island in the north of the Earth.
He wanted to ride Icelandic horses for ten days in bad weather, spend the nights in a hut, and spend time in the vast expanse of nature with just his guide and two friends.
For this adventure, she had been putting every penny she had into a separate account set aside for travel for the past five years, giving up everything else that didn't matter.
“Why would I need new jeans when I can just wait a few days and swim in a hot spring?” she said.
“Moreover, I realized once again how precious a wish that doesn’t come true right away is.
As if I were learning patience, frugality, and deprivation all over again, like using a muscle I had neglected for a long time.
In today's world, where everything always seems to happen in an instant, wishes that don't come true right away are especially precious."
--- pp.57-58

Twenty-five summers.

This one word, this one number.
How much significance does this have?
I never thought about that.
When I closed my eyes, everything was perfectly quiet.
--- p.105

What if my feelings about yesterday were just my imagination? What if Karl only invited me back with empty words, but I gave yesterday's events more meaning than he did? Wouldn't it be truly horrible to be a nuisance to others?
Besides, today is Sunday.
New people mean new inspiration, new ideas, new perspectives, and an expanded world.
But it can also lead to rejection, disappointment, and arguments, and there's always the possibility that it will be fleeting, like the first snow that suddenly covers the road with a touch of tenderness but quickly melts away overnight.
--- p.111

I first picked up a tennis racket when I was eight years old.
On the first day, I was already burning with a great love for the sport.
Every day, without exception, after school, I would ride my bike to practice tennis, and on weekends, I would spend all day on the tennis court.
My friends and I played tennis nonstop every afternoon, chasing the ball until it got dark and we couldn't see it anymore.
One time, after it was dark in the evening, I reached a tie break and tried to hit the ball with a flashlight.
After the game, I poured some soda into a wheat beer mug and drank it.
In the evenings, we sometimes had a barbecue together on the terrace.
When we beat another club in a league match, we were so happy that we jumped up and down in circles.
We had ambitions and practiced for a long time until our backhands had the same power as our forehands, but everything was easy and light, far from the pressure of performance or the harsh sense of honor.
When we lost a match, we shook it off and started again with passion.
I still believe that when you truly immerse yourself in something, whether it's sports, politics, work, or study, it always progresses this way.

--- pp.119-120

A long break was inevitable as it would take several months to recover from the injury.
After a long time, I was able to rest comfortably again.
While my knees continued to swell, my head gradually relaxed.
In the case of automobile tires, pressure loss occurs as resistance increases with increasing speed.
I was at a dangerous point.
If it's a tire, you're advised to go to the nearest gas station as soon as possible to see if the tire can be serviced or if it needs to be replaced.
But it took weeks to diagnose my heart, and during that time there was no repair shop to check me.
I limped to the outdoor pool with my school friends in the afternoon and went to parties on the weekends.
For the first time in my life, I rolled my own cigarette and smoked it.
It was a perfectly normal way for children to grow up in a small town.
For other kids, it was normal, but for me, it was the best rehabilitation in the world.
Then one Tuesday, I picked up the phone and called the athletes' village.
“There are no more games!” I still don’t know where I got the courage to say that.
The silence on the other end of the phone still rings in my ears to this day.

--- pp.127-128

“My mother used to have a brown Volkswagen Beetle convertible,” I said to Karl, who was sitting on the trunk.

I talked about the car my mom bought me used, the car that meant a slice of freedom in her world of obligations.
When my grandmother left for nursing home, my mother wanted to visit her often.
I was the only one who went there.
We prayed to Peter all week that it would be sunny that day.
We opened the roof of the Volkswagen, put on our sunglasses, and put a cassette tape of my mom's favorite Leonard Cohen song into the audio system as the opening fanfare.
Her hair was blowing in the wind.
The sandwiches my mother made herself, with sausage and cheese or eggs, were already gone after running 50 kilometers, and I gave in to things like overtaking men who no longer wanted to live.

--- pp.143-144

“The vast ocean teaches us that humans are nothing more than bubbles that appear for a moment and then disappear just as quickly.
Everyone wants to stay above water longer than underwater.
But if I hadn't kept talking to my doctor, I probably would have eventually succumbed.
He said the right thing at the right time.
It took a while for that to work out, but it worked.
It was the same for my family.
It's a treatment that can't be learned and can't be paid for by any health insurance.
They were the quiet heroes who wisely supported this world.”
I was silent for a long time.
There was so much to say about everything, but at the same time so little.
He realized that his life wasn't all potatoes, books, and yellow sun.
It's been revealed once again that just looking at someone's appearance can't tell you what truly moves them deep down, or what shadows their life.
I didn't know what to say, so I asked the question I was most curious about at that moment.
“How are you today?”
Karl's answer was only two sentences.
“What more could you ask for in life?
“I like it the way it is now.”
I am now completely speechless.

--- pp.157-158