It's 2017 and Leyla, a Turkish twenty-something living in Berlin is scrubbing toilets at an Alice in Wonderland-themed hostel after failing her thesis, losing her student visa, and suing her German university in a Kafkaesque attempt to reverse her failure. A singular debut from "an important and radical new literary voice" (Elif Batuman), The Applicant explores with wit and brevity what it means to be an immigrant, woman, and emerging writer.