Honor: A Novel

Elif Shafak

Mar 2013 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

An honor killing shatters and transforms the lives of Turkish immigrants in 1970s London in this novel from the author of The Island of Missing Trees (a Reese's Book Club pick)

Internationally bestselling Turkish author Elif Shafak’s new novel is a dramatic tale of families, love, and misunderstandings that follows the destinies of twin sisters born in a Kurdish village. While Jamila stays to become a midwife, Pembe follows her Turkish husband, Adem, to London, where they hope to make new lives for themselves and their children.

In London, they face a choice: stay loyal to the old traditions or try their best to fit in. After Adem abandons his family, Iskender, the eldest son, must step in and become the one who will not let any shame come to the family name.  And when Pembe begins a chaste affair with a man named Elias, Iskender will discover that you could love someone with all your heart and yet be ready to hurt them.

Just published to great acclaim in England, Honor is a powerful, gripping exploration of guilt and innocence, loyalty and betrayal, and the trials of the immigrant, as well as the love and heartbreak that too often tear families apart.

Ratings and reviews

I recommend this book to anyone who loves reading about foreign cultures. I was enthralled. It kept my attention!

About the author

Elif Shafak’s books include the novels The Bastard of Istanbul and The Forty Rules of Love and the memoir Black Milk, and her writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.  Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages.  She has appeared on NPR, and the BBC, and at the TED conference.  She lives in London and Istanbul.