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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.
"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.
1280 Reviews
3.5
ayesha
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Meghana G
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“I just want to leave you with this quote from the book, because I’m still at a loss for words to encapsulate what I’m feeling right now.
“That was the one thing about the rain that likened it to sorrow: You did your best to remain untouched, safe and dry, but if and when you failed, there came a point in which you started seeing the problem less in terms of drops than as an incessant gush, and thereby you decide you might as well get drenched.”
- Bastard of Istanbul, Elif Shafak”
Flora Clarke
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Alice Rose
Created 6 days agoShare
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“I really enjoyed this book (in the second half). I love this author so much, this just happens to be my least favourite book I’ve read by her. It’s still so good, and I’ve learnt something about a part of history I knew very little about.
The first half of this book, very little happened, and I struggled to get through it, it took me such a long time to get through. I’m glad I persevered mind you, as the second half was really good once I got into it.”
About Elif Shafak
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.
Other books by Elif Shafak
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