After a slow start, introducing the characters of the story with great precision, The Bastard of Istanbul turns out to be quite unexpected from what I first thought.
It is a family saga of women, where we travel in time as well as in space. We get to read about the modern city of Istanbul of today, Turkey in the last years of the Ottoman Empire, the desert of Arizona and the moist San Francisco Bay.
It is a great story in learning about the conflict between Turkey and Armenia, but also about race and nationality in general. They share a common past, but at the same time their memories of that past is as different as different stories.
The author, Elif Shafak is a brave woman, writing about things that is still quite taboo in Turkey. She was put on trial for “denigrating Turkishness” as she put it herself in the acknowledgements at the back of her book. However, the charges were eventually dropped.
I am really looking forward to read her other books.
Josefine
Title: The Bastard of Istanbul Author: Elif Shafak ISBN: 978-0-670-91720-4
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