Hooray! You have added the first book to your bookshelf. Check it out now!
[−]
  • Search Digit-count Valid ISBN Invalid ISBN Valid Barcode Invalid Barcode
Blog this item

The Bastard of Istanbul

By Elif Shafak

(30)

| Hardcover | 9780670038343

Like The Bastard of Istanbul?
Join aNobii to see if your friends read it, and discover similar books!

Sign up for free

Book Description

From one of Turkey's most acclaimed and outspoken writers, a novel about the tangled histories of two families

In her second novel written in English, Elif Shafak confronts her country's violent past in a vivid and colorful tale set in both Turkey and the United States. At its centerContinue

From one of Turkey's most acclaimed and outspoken writers, a novel about the tangled histories of two families

In her second novel written in English, Elif Shafak confronts her country's violent past in a vivid and colorful tale set in both Turkey and the United States. At its center is the “bastard” of the title, Asya, a nineteen-year-old woman who loves Johnny Cash and the French Existentialists, and the four sisters of the Kazanci family who all live together in an extended household in Istanbul: Zehila, the zestful, headstrong youngest sister who runs a tattoo parlor and is Asya's mother; Banu, who has newly discovered herself as a clairvoyant; Cevriye, a widowed high school teacher; and Feride, a hypochondriac obsessed with impending disaster. Their one estranged brother lives in Arizona with his wife and her Armenian daughter, Armanoush. When Armanoush secretly flies to Istanbul in search of her identity, she finds the Kazanci sisters and becomes fast friends with Asya. A secret is uncovered that links the two families and ties them to the 1915 Armenian deportations and massacres. Full of vigorous, unforgettable female characters, The Bastard of Istanbul is a bold, powerful tale that will confirm Shafak as a rising star of international fiction.

Critics

  • This Turkey's been overstuffed

    The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak Viking £16.99, pp357 The bastard of Istanbul arrives already weighed down by baggage. Written in English, the novel was published first in Turkey, in translation, where it rapidly became a bestseller. Its author ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

  • Armenian in Istanbul

    There is a moral putrescence peculiar to the denial of genocide. Yet denial’s practitioners are all around us. The Sudanese government calls the butchers of Darfur “self-defense militias.” The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, dismisses the Hol ... (read full critics)

    nytimes published on Sat, 18 Sep 2010

3 Reviews

Login or Sign Up to write a review

  • I loved the lucid sarcasm of this book. I loved the way the stories were twisting unexpectedly. I loved the strong and fragile characters of Amy and Asya, their fight to find their identity in a society still paying for their grandparents's mistakes. I highly recommended it!!!!

    Is this helpful?

    jaahbaba said on Apr 30, 2012 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Book Details

Improve data of this book

Prices Change currency & sellers

ISBN Edition List Sale Seller
9780670038343 Hardcover $24.95 -- The Book Depository
Other editions →
+ 2 copies tradable: →
Added to Shelf Added to Wish List

Inline Translation Mode

Left click to navigate, right click to translate.

inline translation guide

or close

Inline translation is not ready for this page yet.

Inline translation mode.

Share this page with your friends.

The viewport has not loaded.