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Bliss

Zülfü Livaneli

Discussion: Middle East (includes Turkey)

Discussion leader: Lilisa

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Middle East (includes Turkey)

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What Members Thought

Apr 04, 2013 Marieke rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, turkey, worlds-lit, 2013

Really 4.5 stars for me. I had never heard of this author before and I'm really glad I read this (thank you, Asmah!). It was interesting to read not long after having read Orhan Pamuk's Snow. Some similar themes, and a similar time period, but very different stories. Livaneli took three central characters who at the beginning of the story were in different places and each dealing with a personal crisis. Their paths meet and each struggles with their crisis, undergoes some type of transformation, ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

May 26, 2014 Lilisa rated it liked it

Shelves: 2016, around-the-world-2016-lilisa-s-chal, translated, fiction, turkiye, ylto-geo-challenge-part-2, trez-read

The lives of three individuals collide - each struggling to figure out life’s path - set against the backdrop of conflicting traditional religious beliefs and culture versus those of a progressive modern-day Turkey. There’s Meryem - a young uneducated girl, raised in the traditional environment, who is raped by her uncle, but no one knows the identify of the raper. As the head of the family, her uncle orders that she must die, having brought shame on her family and orders his son, Cemal, to do t ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Mar 17, 2013 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it liked it

Shelves: read2013, location-turkey, around-the-world

Bliss tells the story of three Turkish people at the beginning of the 21st century - Meryem, a small-village teenager with a 1st grade education; Chemal, from the same village and fighting the Kurds in the mountains; Irfan, a Harvard-trained professor who married an incredibly wealthy woman and moved to Istanbul.

As the novel starts, Meryem has been shamed by being raped by her uncle, the religious leader of the family, and Chemal is supposed to "take her to Istanbul," which in her village means ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Feb 18, 2013 Julia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: around-the-world

I never expected this book to become a favourite - but Zülfü Livaneli impressed me with this clear writing, his humanity, his insight into different characters and his passionate treatment of different social issues in Turkey.

1 like · Like · see review