The Bastard of Istanbul

Elif Shafak

Jan 2008 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

A “vivid and entertaining” (Chicago Tribune) tale about the tangled history of two families, from the author of The Island of Missing Trees (a Reese's Book Club Pick)

"Zesty, imaginative . . . a Turkish version of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club." —USA Today

As an Armenian American living in San Francisco, Armanoush feels like part of her identity is missing and that she must make a journey back to the past, to Turkey, in order to start living her life. Asya is a nineteen-year-old woman living in an extended all-female household in Istanbul who loves Jonny Cash and the French existentialists. The Bastard of Istanbul tells the story of their two families--and a secret connection linking them to a violent event in the history of their homeland. Filed with humor and understanding, this exuberant, dramatic novel is about memory and forgetting, about the need to examine the past and the desire to erase it, and about Turkey itself.

Ratings and reviews

Really ends well. I love the ladies stories.

Beautifully written.

Mni7

About the author

ELIF SHAFAK is an award-winning British-Turkish author of a dozen novels, including There Are Rivers in the Sky, The Island of Missing Trees, shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award, and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World, shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her work has been translated into fifty-six languages. She holds a PhD in political science and has taught at universities in Turkey, the U.S. and the UK. She lives in London and is an honorary fellow at Oxford University.