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The Bastard of Istanbul

3.69 of 5 stars 3.69 · rating details · 4,949 ratings · 684 reviews

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...more

Hardcover, 368 pages

Published January 18th 2007 by Viking Adult (first published March 1st 2006)

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May 28, 2008 Shannon (Giraffe Days) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, 2008, cover-love

It was the cover that snared me. Turkey is one of the top three countries on my mental list of countries to visit, along with the Czech Republic and Morocco, and I love Turkish architecture and design. The cover reminded me of those beautiful mosaics and arches and mosques, and then the title! Who could resist? A less impulsive person than me, sure, but this is my idea of living dangerously :)

Beautifully, gracefully, vividly written with a light, airy atmosphere that really allows you to breathe...more It was the cover that snared me. Turkey is one of the top three countries on my mental list of countries to visit, along with the Czech Republic and Morocco, and I love Turkish architecture and design. The cover reminded me of those beautiful mosaics and arches and mosques, and then the title! Who could resist? A less impulsive person than me, sure, but this is my idea of living dangerously :)

Beautifully, gracefully, vividly written with a light, airy atmosphere that really allows you to breathe, The Bastard of Istanbul follows the story of two girls and their families, one Turkish, one Armenian American, and how their histories interweave. Asya Kazanci is the bastard daughter of Zeliha, raised by an eccentric group of aunts and grandmothers in Istanbul. Now 19, she spends most of her time listening to Johnny Cash records and philosophising with a group of older, cynical political outcasts at the Cafe Kundera. In Arizona, 19 year old Armanoush "Amy" Tchakhmakhchian bounces between her over-protective American mother Rose and quiet Turkish step-father Mustafa, and her father Barsham's large Armenian family in San Francisco. Struggling to understand herself and what it means to be Armenian, she decides to journey to Turkey and stay with her step-father's family, the Kazanci's.

Politics, history, philosophy, religion, and the familiar struggle for personal identity in relation to and against a collective group flesh out this lovely tale, littered with references to popular culture and classic literature. Likened to the work of Amy Tan, Shafak's prose is much more philosophical and lyrical, and her themes are less dramatic for drama's sake. I found all her characters to be instantly recognisable, and I felt that both Asya and Amy to be familiar, and similar, to myself in some ways. I identified with them far more readily than I would reading about a more conventional teenager.

The atmosphere is wonderful, from dry Arizona to misty San Francisco to loud, colourful, vibrant Istanbul - made me want to go there even more than before! I could hear and smell and see it all so clearly, though the prose is not overly descriptive. With an omniscient narrator who reveals the inner tortures and idiosyncracies of the characters with a humorous but sympathetic touch, the narrative goes back and forth in time, skilfully revealing the past as it corresponds to the present, creating a tapestry as detailed and vivid as a Turkish carpet. I loved all the aunts too, with their quirks and Banu's djinni. Yes, there's a touch of magic realism in this book that serves it well.

The conflict between Turks and Armenians, the denial of the Armenian genocide which, I believe, is still keeping Turkey out of the EU, is dealt with with a great deal of compassion and understanding. Shafak makes an effort to show different arguments, as in, why the Turks are so ignorant of this history and why the Armenians are so stubborn to relive it. There was a wonderful quote about that but sadly I didn't mark the page and now I can't find it.

This was a random find in the bookshop and an absolute gem to read, and I highly recommend it. On a side note, the author mentions that the book was first released in Turkey in 2006 (she wrote it in both Turkish and English) and she was facing up to three years in jail because some of the things the Turkish characters said went against the nation, something like that, but the charges were dropped. Still, it's a bit scary, but also fascinating - Turkey is arguably one of the more liberal Muslim states, by western standards, where women have rights and opportunities, but where conservative traditions still play a heavy hand in domestic affairs.

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Sep 19, 2008 Anca rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Anca by: ionuca

Shelves: 10, old-holidays

Wow! This was something! I have to admit I missed the feeling of oneness in a book.
Right after I finnished it (& took a deep breath), I turned on my computer determined to read more about the author, the story, ideas, opinions. I like to do that when I don't want a book to end.
Unfortunately, I got to an old conclussion of mine again: critique and dissection of the book has no charm. I clicked on some links and there I had! opinions about how characters evolve and how the novel is built, ev...more

10 likes · like · see review

Aug 01, 2009 Lavinia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, fiction

Entertaining? Yes. Lively characters? Absolutely. Page turner? By all means. It is what I call the perfect book for holiday. One might as well consider Middlesex and The Kite Runner, not only for the captivating stories but also for the multi-cultural (Turkish-American, Armenian-American, Greek-American, Afghan-American whatever-American) incursion into people's and countries' past and present political / economical / social situation.

Beyond the complicated relationships (which got on my nerves...more

7 likes · like · see review

Sep 04, 2007 Amrita rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: rikin

The book suffers due to its trite language, stereotypical characterization, and unsubtle plot. You end up not really caring for any of the characters, and wishing that the two deep questions - the Armenian genocide and the Turkish identity pre and post Ataturk, had been painted on a more deserving canvas...

15 likes · like · see review

Mar 18, 2008 Fatma rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love Elif Safak and I liked this book. She makes her characters so alive when writing, good are not always good, bad are not always bad, there is beauty and poison in all of us at times. It is only a matter of how we use it.

8 likes · like · see review

Aug 24, 2008 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars

I bought this novel after our trip to Istanbul last year, and it was very cool to read something set in this amazing city. (I’ve tried reading Orhan Pamuk, but found him to be far too much work for my leisure time.) Shafak centers her story on two woman-dominated communities: an all-female household in Istanbul and a mostly-female Armenian-American family in San Francisco. At the center of each is a young woman: Asya and Armanoush, both rebellious girls in their own ways, who are both driven to...more

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Feb 18, 2008 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars

Although set in modern day Arizona, San Francisco, and Istanbul, this book flashes back to periods of Turkish history that I never studied in school, and had relatively little knowledge of. The book prompted me to further explore historical accounts of the Armenian Genocide, and the modern Turkish government's position on this time period. I'm always grateful when a book prompts me to look at difficult histories, but overall I found that everything came together at the end of this book a bit too...more

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Nov 27, 2008 Blanca Mazón rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Blanca by: review in a magazine

Hi, this is my first review. I am actually still reading this book, but it has caught me. Elilf Shafak is a wonderful story-teller, in the tradition of John Irving. Not only does interest you everything happening to the characters, but she brings a very political and critical touch to the story. For those looking forward to knowing more about Turkey and its problematic position between Europe and Asia. Wonderful book, lovely written and emotional, too, without becoming sentimental.

A couple of da...more

6 likes · like · see review

Apr 05, 2009 Genni Gunn rated it 3 of 5 stars

Turkish/Armenian magic-realism chick lit with a political (albeit simplistic) message re cultures living harmoniously. Really more about memory and forgetting – both in the political and personal sense – about existentialism, and also about the vast difference between an immigrant culture and its original culture back home. An interesting book. The voice, perhaps, is a bit too breezy, in view of the topics covered.

I'm still pondering how I feel about it. The discussion regarding memory and forge...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 23, 2013 Nazish rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: feminist-stab, cultural-jabs, history-bites, own-hardbacks

With the onslaught of Turkish dramas in Pakistan, it’s not surprising that people have become more curious about Turkish culture which was originally thought to be purely a religious one with some western influences. Reading this book gives a perfect insight into the cultural intricacies and Turkey's biggest fears. It is set on a rich historical background for which I scuffled around the internet for each and every historic event it panned and was more than surprised to learn about the country’s...more

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Oct 07, 2011 Ghada Arafat rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kobo-reads

The center theme of the book is the past and its effect on our future. The fate of two distant families, from two different ethnic groups and a shared past, are reunited by that past.
The story line was interesting till the end of the book where melodrama prevailed. At the end some of the conversations and observations made me feel that they were their just to make the book longer.
As the writer was trying to highlight the Armenian genocide, she was really unfair to them. She presented them as a g...more

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Aug 17, 2008 Mia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2008

We need more popular fiction that depicts other aspects of Muslim life than the narrative of women's oppression that has become all too familiar. Though this book is a useful addition to that category, it falls short; the writing and plotting frequently feel forced, and some of the characters seem like nothing so much as convenient vehicles to carry out plot points. If the writing were consistently strong, this could be more easily overlooked, but there were too many times when I felt like the a...more

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Jan 21, 2012 Marina rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who likes learning about other cultures

Recommended to Marina by: a literary magazine

Shelves: favorites, turkey

I first heard about this novel through magazines and a literary newspaper, for there was a lot of brouhaha about the author being faced with jail time for writing a book about the Armenian genocide. I was immediately hooked because my home countries of Bosnia and Serbia were also under the rule of the Ottomans. I regularly follow events in Turkey and Istanbul is the city that is on my places-to-visit-before-I-die list. And as another reviewer pointed out, the cover of the book is like a gorgeous...more I first heard about this novel through magazines and a literary newspaper, for there was a lot of brouhaha about the author being faced with jail time for writing a book about the Armenian genocide. I was immediately hooked because my home countries of Bosnia and Serbia were also under the rule of the Ottomans. I regularly follow events in Turkey and Istanbul is the city that is on my places-to-visit-before-I-die list. And as another reviewer pointed out, the cover of the book is like a gorgeous Turkish carpet. The book promises to be "a Turkish version of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club."

The work Elif Shafak has produced in "The Bastard of Istanbul" is very similiar to the books Amy Tan has produced in that both authors create strong, vivid female protagonists and we see history and culture through the women's eyes above all. I think people who enjoy Amy Tan should try this book because they won't be disappointed: the novel is lightly and lyrically written. The best scenes are in Istanbul as the author has created an atmosphere of what it is like to live in that great city, with details of the severe rain, heat, and nighttime culture. Contrary to what other reviewers have written, I didn't think that the supporting characters were one-dimensional at all. Shafak just puts her focus on Armanoush, who is Armenian-American and Asya, who is the bastard of the title, for the demands of writing a novel.

If you still don't think you should read this book, then I am going to suggest reading it for the atmosphere of what it's like to live in Istanbul AND Arizona, and what it means to be a Turkish citizen stuck between the European Union and Islam. The conversations betwen the customers of Cafe Kundera simmer with angst about Turkey's place in the world.

Lastly, I have gone over the use of chances and coincidence with myself and I can't bring myself to object like some other reviewers. Remember that in the real world secrets more shocking than anything written in fiction have emerged and that in our lives there are plenty of coincidences already. It's not asking for a lot to believe two families are connected in a way they may not know or be able to see given the limits of human knowledge. In the courageous efforts by Shafak to deal with Turkish denial and Armenian eagerness to relive their victimhood, she has produced art that suggests memory is one of the binders of human beings and that what one forgets is not good for you and for those related to you.

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Sep 09, 2007 Alicia rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Bastard of Istanbul was fun to read because I have spent time in Turkey and there was a very Turkish feel to the book. This is a country that works hard to be seen as European and Democratic even as they struggle with their religious roots and so the way the author blended the new thinking with older customs was very nicely done.

This particular book talks about the Armenian genocide and the Turkish role in that piece of history. This was fascinating novelized look at how people deal (or choo...more

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Jun 18, 2009 Siria rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 21st-century, turkish-fiction, by-poc

A florid hodgepodge of a book, The Bastard of Istanbul is too weak a novel to deal fruitfully with the issues it raises—the Armenian genocide of 1915; nationalism; how to navigate through your identity as the child of immigrants—and Shafak's ambition doesn't match her execution. It's cluttered and unfocused, and Shafak's characters fail to come alive beneath the weight of symbolism and stereotypes she heaps on them. The climactic revelations of the novel are also quite far-fetched and felt very...more

5 likes · like · see review

Feb 08, 2011 Jacqueline rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-wall, from-work-borders

Interesting book written in a bit of a lyrical style. The story of two families one in modern day Istanbul and the other ethnic American with Turkish ties. Rather slowly paced. Everything seems great on the surface but eventually family secrets come to light. Evocative of exotic foreign locales.

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Oct 18, 2011 Chrissie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: hf, kirkus, turkey, armenia, favorites

The lines are beautiful.
The humor is priceless.
The questions are numerous.
One example being: what is the value of truth?
Is truth always to be sought, AT ALL COSTS?
because: "the past is anything by bygone."

and as Elif Shafak also so eloquently speaks:

"Once there was. Once there wasn't. God's creatures were as plentiful as grains and talking too much was a sin, for you could tell what you shouldn't remember and you could remember what you shouldn't tell."

The humor - I adored the depiction of Fren...more

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Dec 20, 2008 Stephanie rated it 3 of 5 stars

AS a journalist, I'm a sucker for stories about idealistic writers who want to speak the truth, but are silenced by their repressive governments. No wonder, then, that I've been riveted by the recent drama surrounding Turkish writer Elif Shafak.
Last year, she was put on trial for "insulting Turkishness", facing three years imprisonemnet under the country's Article 301of the penal code. More than 60 writers, including Nobel-Prize winner Orhan Pamuck, had been charged under the law since its intro...more AS a journalist, I'm a sucker for stories about idealistic writers who want to speak the truth, but are silenced by their repressive governments. No wonder, then, that I've been riveted by the recent drama surrounding Turkish writer Elif Shafak.
Last year, she was put on trial for "insulting Turkishness", facing three years imprisonemnet under the country's Article 301of the penal code. More than 60 writers, including Nobel-Prize winner Orhan Pamuck, had been charged under the law since its introduction in June 2005, but Shafak's case was the first time it had been applied to a work of fiction.
That controversial work of fiction? Her sixth novel and her second in English, The Bastard of Istanbul, in which characters refer to the 1915 Armenian genocide in the final years of the Ottoman Empire, a holocaust that Turks still strongly and officially deny.
Those searching for the controversial parts are rewarded early into the book, when an Armenian American man is scolded by his uncle for not being worried that daughter is getting a Turk for a stepfather:
"What will that innocent lamb tell her friends when she grows up? My father is Barsam Tchakhmakhchian, my great-uncle is Dikran Stamboulian, his father is Varvant Istanboulian, my name is Armanoush Tchakhmakhchian, all my family tree has been Something Somethingian, and I am the grandchild of genocide survivors who lost all their relatives at the hands of the Turkish butchers in 1915, but I myself have been brainwashed to deny the genocide because I was raised by some Turk named Mustafa!"
Emotions and exclamation marks run rife in this epic soap opera, which shuttles between a Turkish family in Istanbul and an Armenian family split between Tucson, Aarizona and San Francisco, California in the United States.
At the heart of each family is a teenaged girl. On the Armenian side is Armanoush, the beautiful and bookish daughter of an Armenian American father and a white mother. Her mother sparked the tirade quoted above when she remarried a Turkish man, Mustapha Kazanci, out of spite to her Armenian ex-inlaws.
Armanoush visits her step-father's family in Istanbul, from which her Armenian family was exiled from, in a quest to discover her Armenian identity.
There, she meets four generations of Kazanci women: her step-father's four sisters, which include a clairvoyant, a history teacher, a schizophrenic and a tattoo-artist; their distant mother; their Alzheimer's-stricken grandmother; and Asya, the daughter of the tattoo-artist, and the bastard of the title.
Unlike Armanoush, the headstrong Asya has no knowledge -- nor interest -- in her ancestry. As she tells Armanoush: "For me history starts today, you see? There is no continuity in time. You can't feel attached to ancestors if you can't even trace your own father."
As the girls become friends and explore Istanbul together, the chain of events leads to lots of skeletons getting retrieved from closets, and the discovery that their families are linked beyond the obvious Turkish-Armenian tension.
In her earnestness to tackle the genocide question head-on, Shafak's writing can come off sometimes like a dramatised textbook. Take this exchange between Armanoush and Asya:
"No, you are not Western. Turks are Middle Eastern but somehow in constant denial. And if you had let us stay in our homes, we too could still be Middle Easterners instead of turning into a diaspora people."
"What do you mean?"
"What do I mean? I mean, Sultan Hamid's Pan-Turkish and Pan Islamic yoke. I mean, the 1909 Adana massacres or the 1915 deportations ... Do those ring a bell? Did you not hear anything about the Armenian genocide?"
At other times, though, Shafak effectively and elegantly uses the domestic setting to explore a nation's psyche. When Armanoush tells the Kazancis that some of the ancestors were killed by the Turks, she is surprised that the women appear unembarrassed, and even sympathetic: "Slowly it dawned on Armanoush that perhaps she was waiting for an admission of guilt, if not an apology. And yet that apology had not come, not because they had not felt for her, for it looked as if they had, but because they had seen no connection between themselves and the perpetrators of their crimes."
As skeletons are dragged from closets, the reader begins to wonder with the clairvoyant Auntie Banu: "Was it really better for human beings to pine to discover more of their past? Or was it simply better to know as little of the past as possible and even to forget what small amount was remembered?" Shafak stridently and devastatingly attacks both sides of the argument, though this philosophical jousting is of no help to her characters. Reeling from the onslaught of revelations that rain down in the last few chapters, each is left facing the question of how to live with such knowledge -- or whether it would be easier to forget it altogether.
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May 08, 2013 Nshslibrary rated it 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this novel, yet I would not recommend it. As rich and deep the conversations were between characters regarding the important Armenian Genocide, I found the novel to be boring at times, as there was no action, which is something I tend to enjoy when reading. Armanoush's journey to Istanbul was interesting, as she learned a lot of Istanbulite culture and the unique culture of the Kazanci family. I would have never predicted that Armanoush has ties to the Kazanci family, as her Grandma Sh...more

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Mar 13, 2013 Matt Luedke rated it 4 of 5 stars

I first heard of Elif Shafak when I watched her TED talk in 2010 called "The Politics of Fiction." I have to say it really had an effect on me and I highly recommend it. I started to pay closer attention to an author's background in the fiction I would read thenceforth. It's really enriched my reading since then.

But for one reason or another, it took me almost three years to get around to actually reading one of her books. Which one to read first, though? Well, the fact that she was legally char ...more

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Mar 05, 2013 Plamen Miltenoff rated it 5 of 5 stars

P.7 in this world serenity generated luck and luck generated felicity
P.21 here and there children stomped in mud puddles, taking delight in committing simple sinsP.122 if you have no interest in their answers then do not ask questions
P.140 these women constituted the new professionals - lawyers, teachers, judges, managers, clerks, academics...Unlike their mothers they were not confined to the house and had the chance to climb the social, economic, and cultural ladder, provided that they shed the...more

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Feb 06, 2013 Allison Christiansen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Elif Shafak is perhaps best known, not for her writing, but for the legal trouble it has caused her. The author is a best selling writer in Turkey but her novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, was the first work of fiction to be considered criminal under Article 301 of the Turkish penal code. Shafak was the first to be prosecuted for remarks attributed to a fictional character. Elif Shafak faced up to three years in jail for “denigrating Turkishness” because an Armenian character mentioned “Turkish bu...more Elif Shafak is perhaps best known, not for her writing, but for the legal trouble it has caused her. The author is a best selling writer in Turkey but her novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, was the first work of fiction to be considered criminal under Article 301 of the Turkish penal code. Shafak was the first to be prosecuted for remarks attributed to a fictional character. Elif Shafak faced up to three years in jail for “denigrating Turkishness” because an Armenian character mentioned “Turkish butchers” and referred to the Armenian genocide of 1915. Yet Elif Shafak represents more than just an infamous trial. Why should we read her work, especially The Bastard of Istanbul? Even if she had never been charged with a crime because of it, this novel would be worth reading. Her writing is engaging, meaningful, and nuanced. This novel is immensely enjoyable, difficult to put down, and the characters are incredibly real and speak with such individual voices. Shafak explores universal themes relating to family, personal and national identity, alienation, and the interconnection between memory and history. She broaches taboo subjects and presents sexuality and acts of violence and their consequences. Shafak also focuses on ideas of gender and women’s roles in society and within patriarchy. Another central theme to Shafak as an individual and a writer is the search for a sense of self relating to one’s country of origin and ethnicity. She presents the theme of “non-belonging” and that the identity of outsider can be felt even within one’s own country, culture or family. The novel is also significant in peculiarly Turkish ways. It examines Turkey’s role as the bridge between the East and the West, between the modern and the traditional, and between the secular and the religious. This in-between identity is expressed through the character of Istanbul. Shafak also shows how Turkey deals with ethnic minorities in the past and the present, and how it relates to history.
Shafak uses richly detailed language, vibrant characters, and a varied narrative style to illustrate the complexities of relationships, history, identity, family and memory. These themes are interwoven with the issues of the central characters: their sense of alienation within their own culture, country and family; their anger and rage at patriarchy, oppression and silence; and their attempts to conceal or confront the truth. This is all placed against the backdrop of the Armenian genocide.
Elif Shafak’s feminism is apparent in her extremely strong, well-written female characters and in her exploration of women’s roles. She examines the social context of the independent Turkish woman within the state-mandated liberation of the patriarchal Republic. Women have the right to vote, yet are ostracized or criticized for wearing either the veil or a miniskirt. Shafak focuses on Turkey’s inability to face history by describing the country’s attempts to completely sever the Ottoman Empire from the Turkish Republic. The state’s refusal to acknowledge the “Armenian question” or recognize anything that predates 1923 is a deliberate effort to enforce amnesia on its citizens, at the cost of the Armenian identity and the Turks’ own honesty.
Shafak addresses taboo topics such as the Armenian genocide, abortion, premarital sex, adultery, rape, incest and fratricide. The novel is filled with mysteries, secrets, stories within stories, and literally a recipe for murder. Revelations of family history coincide with the account of the Armenian genocide of 1915. Elif Shafak writes of the past, national history and personal history, memories, and forgetfulness, often conscious forgetfulness, to avoid the pain of the past. She exposes the cost of keeping secrets- how that affects a person or a family. She presents characters who are living lies. Those most ardently trying to bury their memories are the ones who had perpetrated the most terrible deeds. Yet the victims often wallow in their history, making no move toward the future, with no desire to forget or to forgive. On the other hand, some victims try just as vehemently to forget the past, to live without it, and to deny history’s place in their lives.
Families draw their members together or smother with love, embrace or reveal truths and damaging secrets. At the heart of the novel are the family ties between Asya and Armanoush, between Kazancı and Tchakhmakhchian, the joint history and tragedy that combines and connects them.
Elif Shafak does well expressing her central themes of family, identity, and history. Her characters find tragedy or redemption by denying the past or dealing with it. She deftly handles multiple narratives, weaving stories within stories, and the incredibly connected and richly developed cast of characters. Shafak shows the rippling effect our actions and relationships have on the world around us. Like a Turkish carpet, woven of many colored threads, the lives, families, and cultures of people are intertwined.(less)

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Jan 29, 2013 Katherine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: turkish-lit

OK. I have a lot to say about this book.

First of all, I'm coming off of an Orhan Pamuk high, so I judge all Turkish literature against him. Is that fair? No. Is that what the majority of American/Western people are going to be doing, right or wrong? Yes.

Istanbul, in this fairly uneducated person's (that would be me) view of it, seems pretty complicated. I can never really figure out if we're fully modern and secularized, more religious, or somewhere in between, kinda like Israel. I'm going with...more OK. I have a lot to say about this book.

First of all, I'm coming off of an Orhan Pamuk high, so I judge all Turkish literature against him. Is that fair? No. Is that what the majority of American/Western people are going to be doing, right or wrong? Yes.

Istanbul, in this fairly uneducated person's (that would be me) view of it, seems pretty complicated. I can never really figure out if we're fully modern and secularized, more religious, or somewhere in between, kinda like Israel. I'm going with the final statement from what I've read, but then, when I ask my friends from Istanbul, they all seem to laugh at me when I ask questions like, "Are people going to grab my ass on the street if I'm not wearing a headscarf?" The Western perspective of Istanbul that we get from the transliterated literature, I feel like may be presenting Istanbul in a more conservative way than it actually is. I understand that these authors aren't writing novels, for the most part, set in contemporary, of-the-moment Turkey, and I also understand that in my American view of Turkey I pretty much have no idea what's going on, but still. Every Turkish novel I've read is kind of presenting Istanbul like something that I feel it might not actually be today. This book was no different.

I was wary right away when the book opened with an abortion. I was even more wary to later learn that the abortion came from an incestuous rape. REALLY? I just finished reading that Roiphe essay where she says that the big shocking thing to do to sell books these days it not just to have an abortion, which of course is not longer a biggie in much of the world so we need something more shocking, so let's make it an abortion that took place because of rape, but even THAT'S not AWFUL enough to satiate people's crazy evil desires to read about awful shit happening, so we through on what in modern literature has become the worst of the worst taboo: INCEST. throw in a few complex genocide knots and you've got yourself something every single person wants to read but no one really feels good about or sees as a literary accomplishment, certainly not a new perspective.

Then, all of a sudden, a genie shows up.

I was getting pretty comfortable with the reality of things, if I wanted mysticism I would have read "The 40 rules of love", in which a sad American housewife discoveries Rumi and "takes control of her life." Inexplicably, I'm now reading this book, which again speaks I guess to the inherent pull of her novels, if not perhaps their literary flair and artistry. Then - WHAM - grandma starts chatting up a couple genies she's got stored in her house, which are never really fully explained and seem to have no real place in the story expect to tell more horrific genocide anecdotes.

Really, she was threatened over talking about the genocide? ARE WE SURE it wasn't because of the inclusion of the unnecessary genies?

But still..I read this book in two days. I lost sleep over it. I was there - wait, why is there a chatroom in this book? What happened to their fun online relationship - never mind, banish such unimportant questions, and keep reading. It's addicting. Maybe I'm just one of those stupid and predictable Westerns who likes "exotic" cultures and wants to date a Turkish guy to get revenge on my Armenian Ex-husband's family (THIS HAPPENS IN THE BOOK) but I was really into the world of the book and the characters, I really cared, I really got invested, and I hated myself for it.

I was ready to try all the foods. I called and ordered takeout from the Turkish restaurant down the street from me. I thought about how maybe I should really consider really drinking more tea, and why not invest in some fairly culturally appropriative tea glasses while I'm at it. I thought about if it is really possible for someone to love Cash as much as one of the characters does - seriously, come on, you know that was just hokey as all hell, same with the existentialism, if I wanted that I'd go to a damn graveyard. I wondered if it's easy to meet hot Turkish people in grocery stores, and if they might actually be incestuous rapists that I should stay away from. I wished I had a couple genies to ask about the Holocaust.

This book is like someone you sleep with on the first date: they're hot, you had a great time, but you don't really respect them because they were a little bit too easy. Pamuk, I have a tremendous amount of respect for. This felt like a fun beach read.

But, she got me hooked.

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Jan 20, 2013 penelopewanders rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, rings-rays-loans-traded

Well, having just completed A Time of Gifts, by Patrick Leigh Fermor, a memoir about a walking trip from Holland to Constantinople in 1933, it was interesting that this was top book on my "rings to be read" pile. The author of that book stops his narrative before making it all the way (the last page ends with "to be continued..."), but I was able to plunge right in to the heart of Istanbul. Other coincidence is that I've been looking for books about the Armenian genocide to use with a group of t...more

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Nov 15, 2012 Marleen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“Family stories intermingle in such ways that what happened generations ago can have an impact on seemingly irrelevant developments of the present day. The past is anything but bygone.”

Armanoush has an American mother and an Armenian father who are separated. When her mother remarried it was to Mustafa, a Turkish man. Armanoush spends part of her time in San Francisco with her father’s family and part in Arizona with her mother. She is a young woman, caught between cultures, raised on stories ab...more “Family stories intermingle in such ways that what happened generations ago can have an impact on seemingly irrelevant developments of the present day. The past is anything but bygone.”

Armanoush has an American mother and an Armenian father who are separated. When her mother remarried it was to Mustafa, a Turkish man. Armanoush spends part of her time in San Francisco with her father’s family and part in Arizona with her mother. She is a young woman, caught between cultures, raised on stories about the horrendous hardships Armenians went through in the early 20th century with little idea of what her forefather’s homeland looks like. When curiosity gets the better of her she decides to travel to Istanbul without telling anybody. After all, in Istanbul she can stay with her stepfather’s family. Mustafa may not have been back to his homeland or his family in twenty years but now his stepdaughter will come to visit.
In Istanbul 20 year old Asya has grown up in a house filled with women. Born out of wedlock she has no idea who her father is and calls her mother “Auntie” just as she does her mother’s three sisters. Asya has initially no intention of becoming friends with this stranger from America but as the days go by the two girls grow closer and, unbeknownst to them, so do their stories and histories.

There is a lot more to the story in this book than I have described above. I could extend the summary with descriptions of the individual aunts, the back-stories of the various older generation characters as well as the troubled history between the Armenian and Turkish people. To do so would mean writing a short story rather than a review though. And I can’t help feeling that no matter how much I expand on my summary, I will still leave out details that others might consider vital to the story. And besides, one issue I had with this book was that the author seemed to want to tell too many stories. I don’t think this book needed the detailed histories and descriptions of so many different characters. I can’t help feeling that the book would have left a deeper impression if the author had concentrated on the two young women while using their families as background figures – characters with walk-on parts so to speak.

What I did enjoy was the insight this book gave me into a history I knew little or nothing about. I had some vague idea about troubles between the Turkish and Armenian people but wouldn’t have been able to tell you anything about it or even place it at a specific moment in time. The author did a great job explaining this history in all its heartbreaking detail without either turning it into a tear-jerking drama or sounding overly judgemental. I feel she also dealt very well with the feelings modern day, exiled, Armenians hang on to and the ignorance of a lot of Turkish people with regard to that history and those feelings. The reader isn’t forced to take sides. There is no need to condemn one people in favour of the other. Just as the people doing despicable things in this story don’t stay bad all their lives, neither do the sins of the fathers determine relationships between their children. The past may be anything but bygone, that doesn’t mean that those in the present can’t create a new future.

This was a clever, insightful, very well written and easy to read book with a fascinating story. Maybe the author tried to cram in a bit too much information for me, but that didn’t stop me from continuing to turn the pages at a ferocious pace.
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Sep 26, 2012 Regina Lindsey rated it 1 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. It is so hard to rate this book because I felt differently about different parts of the book:

Beginning (Ch 1-5) 2 Stars
Middle (Ch 6 - 14) 4 Stars
End (Ch 14-18) 1 Star

The Bastard of Istanbul is billed as a story of two families, one Armenian and one Turk, tied together by a secret related to the 1915 Armeian deportation and massacre. This portion of the story is very good. Unfortunately, this is a minor part of the story wtih the crux being disgusting and so unrelated to promising premise that yo...more It is so hard to rate this book because I felt differently about different parts of the book:

Beginning (Ch 1-5) 2 Stars
Middle (Ch 6 - 14) 4 Stars
End (Ch 14-18) 1 Star

The Bastard of Istanbul is billed as a story of two families, one Armenian and one Turk, tied together by a secret related to the 1915 Armeian deportation and massacre. This portion of the story is very good. Unfortunately, this is a minor part of the story wtih the crux being disgusting and so unrelated to promising premise that you have to wonder if Shafak is simply going for shock value. The story is really about secrets and the destruction of those lies needed to keep that secret .

The Kazanci family from Istanbul is a family with a curse. The men in the family die young. In current day Istanbul four generations of women live together with the exception of one brother who was sent to America in an attempt to protect him from the curse. Each of these women differ vastly in personality. Petit Ma is the gentle matriarch who now suffers from Alzheimer's Disease. Mother Gulsum is akin to Ivan the Terrible. Oldest sister Banu the clairvoyant, Sister Cevriye high school history teacher, Sister Feride is dealing with mental illness resulting in paranoia, rebel Zeliha, and the daughter she bore out of wedlock, Asya co-exist despite their vast differences.

Brother Mustafa marries an American girl named Rose. Rose is a divorced mother of one daughter, Amy (Armanoush). Armanoush's father's family is Armenian and never approved of the American marriage with an Odar. The Armenian famiy are surivivors of the 1915 genocide. Originally Rose dates Mustafa seeking revenge on her ex Armenian in-laws but gradually a sincere love is formed. Armanoush, struggling with her conflicting cultural pasts, secretly travels to Istanbul to stay with her step-father's family to learn more of her Armenian heritage. The visit brings to light a litany of secrets impacting both families.

Possible Spoiler:

Late in the book we learn that Asya is not the result of her mother's rebelious streak but rather a very oddly constructed rape. The choice for the perpetrator is disgusting and doesn't add anything to the story. It is very disappointing that Shafak took the story in that direction and really ruined the book for me personally.(less)

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Sep 21, 2012 Dawn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Turkish/Armenian history is as as colourful and complicated as any persecution story can be; and depending on which history books you read, will depend on which story you get, again as with any conflict. The thing that history disappoints you with, it is novels like this that give you the human element, how the civilian lives are destroyed, changed and how friendships and families are tainted for ever more.

Elif Shafak has written a beautiful, yet powerful book that touches on modernity of va...more The Turkish/Armenian history is as as colourful and complicated as any persecution story can be; and depending on which history books you read, will depend on which story you get, again as with any conflict. The thing that history disappoints you with, it is novels like this that give you the human element, how the civilian lives are destroyed, changed and how friendships and families are tainted for ever more.

Elif Shafak has written a beautiful, yet powerful book that touches on modernity of values, cultural and religious differences within one family (which unfortunately for so many around the world is a missed concept).

The story of a girl's search for who she is, another's disillusion of her family, will touch the heart of so many. As the story unfolds you are caught up in the world of cross cultural families and some of the many challenges we face. So many I could relate to having English, Egyptian and Palestinian culture in one huge cooking pot. For some this would be a nightmare, for many of us, it is enrichment, it is a discovery of human nature and understanding... not to mention an intense adventure!

One of my favourite parts of the book was when Armanoush left the US for Turkey, and the family rushed around preparing the home, the food and each other. The plethora of questions they had, the suspicions they had and then when she arrived the awkward silence that followed. I found it amusing because I have seen it so many times, desperate to be approved of but also willing to criticise at the first opportunity, but out of fear of rejection rather than anything else.

When the dinner scenes were mentioned, I could almost taste the flavours, smell the aromas and see all the aunties sitting their in their many guises. Shafak nailed the descriptions so perfectly, it was almost as if I was shown a photograph of the event, or had been there to eat the food with the family.

My suspicions about the ending were confirmed maybe about 5-6 chapters before the end. I don't know why I suspected it, I just did. Knowing many different cultures in the way I do, it was not hard for me to figure it out half way through the book. My disgust wasn't as strong as I would hoped, wanted it to be. I have become desensitised about such things the more I have travelled and learnt about others, learnt about Human Right Violations.

'Shocking, ambitious and exuberant' was the review given by The Observer... I would settle for 'Accurate, exuberant and painfully real' but that wouldn't sell many books would it? ;)

A great book, go buy it and love it :)(less)

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Aug 12, 2012 Geourska rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There were parts of this book that I really enjoyed and others that I didn't like as much. In fact, I am indecisive about whether to give this book three or four stars, since I just frittered away an entire Sunday trying to finish it.

It was interesting to read a book that discussed the Armenian genocide written by a Turkish author (albeit one who doesn't live in Turkey). Since this is such a charged question, I would be curious to know how much her position is reflective of the average populati...more

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Nov 26, 2011 Kirsten rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those who like to discuss books with unresolved issues

Shelves: on-my-own

This in some ways was a very difficult and slow book to get through, and yet I really wanted to finish it. The characters are so eclectic and weird and the mysteries in the book were what kept me reading, but the writing style and pace at times bogged me down. I also wanted to see how the book would treat the Turkish-Armenian connection that extends back to the time of the genocide.

The book does a very good job of juxtraposing the two views of the past needs to be remembered and is part of who...more This in some ways was a very difficult and slow book to get through, and yet I really wanted to finish it. The characters are so eclectic and weird and the mysteries in the book were what kept me reading, but the writing style and pace at times bogged me down. I also wanted to see how the book would treat the Turkish-Armenian connection that extends back to the time of the genocide.

The book does a very good job of juxtraposing the two views of the past needs to be remembered and is part of who we are and we need closer as opposed to the past is over and done, we need to move on, and focus on the future. I think compared to Gendarme, you get an ever greater sense of the Turkish view and the Armenia view as it is in the present day. You can also see how strongly the modern Turkish culture is really embracing a multicultural feel in Istanbul.

The colorful women of the Turkish family and their lack of males makes an excellent contrast and foil to the overwhelming and equally eccentric Armenian family. I was fascinated by how Asya and Armoush developed their friendship over the second half of the novel, but the surprises in their identities and their pasts were something I had NOT expected....that's why I say there are mysteries. Where I think the book is perhaps too kitchy is the characters in the cafe who are supposed to be stereoypes, but are almost TOO much so. However, in Asya's family I feel that the characters are both three and two dimensional at the same time. With Armoush's family, the most vivid character is really Rose...and I had a hard time relating to her.

The end was in some ways very unsatisfying and in other ways very satisfying. I wish there had been more resolution on the part of Armoush and finding her identity or her returning to her family after losing her grandmother. (That does not give away the ending though.) I also wish I could know more about Asya's response and how she deals with the revelations made to her near the end. And what happens to Banu's djinn? There are plenty of cultural identity issues unresolved...I guess like real life, but when a book goes so far, I wish it would go just a little bit further. Did Banu ever explain what she learns in her visions? How does the pomegranate get received? These questions don't actually give away the mysteries, so no spoilers. However, I have to say I would not recommend this book to people who want everything well-resolved. At the same time, this book would be a very discussable book to a book club if you can get over the slower sections and humps in the book. Overall, I can only give this a 2 out of 5. (less)

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Sep 20, 2011 Raadiya rated it 4 of 5 stars

Colourful, vivid characters, beautiful descriptions of Turkey that brings the novel to life in a way that one experiences the smells, sounds and sites of Istanbul. Istanbul surely has been shifted to the top 10 on my travel list.
I expected more and was a bit disappointed at the somewhat predictable outcome half way through the novel, despite the intricate connections, twists and turns toward the end.
However, Shafak does a great job at exaggerating the different characters to illustrate the dive...more

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About Elif Shafak

Elif Shafak (Elif Şafak) was born in Strasbourg, France, in 1971. She is an award-winning novelist and the most widely read woman writer in Turkey. Critics have named her as "one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Turkish and world literature". Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages and she was awarded the honorary distinction of Chevalier of the Order of Arts a...more Elif Shafak (Elif Şafak) was born in Strasbourg, France, in 1971. She is an award-winning novelist and the most widely read woman writer in Turkey. Critics have named her as "one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Turkish and world literature". Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages and she was awarded the honorary distinction of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.

Shafak has published eleven books, eight of which are novels. She writes fiction in both Turkish and English. Shafak blends Western and Eastern traditions of storytelling, bringing out the myriad stories of women, minorities, immigrants, subcultures, youth and global souls. Her work draws on diverse cultures and literary traditions, as well as deep interest in history, philosophy, Sufism, oral culture, and cultural politics. Shafak's writing breaks down categories, clichés, and cultural ghettoes. She also has a keen eye for black humor.

Shafak's first novel, Pinhan (The Mystic) was awarded the "Rumi Prize" in 1998, which is given to the best work in mystical literature in Turkey. Her second novel, Şehrin Aynaları (Mirrors of the City), brings together Jewish and Islamic mysticism against a historical setting in the 17th century Mediterranean. Shafak greatly increased her readership with her novel Mahrem (The Gaze), which earned her the "Best Novel-Turkish Writers' Union Prize" in 2000. Her next novel, Bit Palas (The Flea Palace), has been a bestseller in Turkey and was shortlisted for the independent Best Fiction Award.

Shafak' wrote her next novel in English. The Saint of Incipient Insanities was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Her second novel written in English is The Bastard of Istanbul, which was the bestselling book of 2006 in Turkey and was longlisted for the Orange prize. The novel, which tells the story of an Armenian and a Turkish family through the eyes of women, brought Shafak under prosecution but the charges were ultimately dismissed.

Following the birth of her daughter in 2006 she suffered from post-natal depression, an experience she addressed in her first autobiographical book, Black Milk. In this book Shafak explored the beauties and difficulties of being a writer and a mother. The book was received with great interest and acclaim by critics and readers alike, being an instant bestseller.

Shafak's next novel focused on Love and love –East & West, past & present, spiritual & mundane, all in the light of Rumi and Shams of Tabriz. The Forty Rules of Love sold more than 600 000 copies, becoming an all time best-seller in Turkey and in France awarded with the Prix ALEF - Mention Spéciale Littérature Etrangère.

Her latest novel, Iskender (Honor), has topped the best-seller lists and has been acclaimed by both critics and readers of various ages and backgrounds. The novel has opened up a vivid debate in Turkey about family, love, freedom, redemption and the construct of masculinity.

In addition to writing fiction, Shafak is also a political scientist, having graduated from the program in International Relations at Middle East Technical University. She holds a Masters degree in Gender and Women's Studies and a Ph.D. in Political Science. Her thesis on "Islamic Mysticism and the Circular Understanding of Time" was awarded by the Social Scientists Institute. Today Shafak continues to write for Haberturk, a major newspaper in Turkey, as well as several international daily & weekly publications, including The Guardian website. She has been featured in major newspapers and periodicals, including the Washington Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, The Economist and The Guardian.

Her nonfiction covers a wide range of topics, including belonging, identity, gender, mental ghettoes, daily life politics, multicultural literature and the art of coexistence. These e(less)

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“Every true love and friendship is a story of unexpected transformation. If we are the same person before and after we loved, that means we haven't loved enough.” — 152 people liked it

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