reorientmag:Whereas Livaneli’s Bliss took place close to home – in the Anatolian countryside, and la
reorientmag: Whereas Livaneli’s Bliss took place close to home – in the Anatolian countryside, and later, Istanbul – Shafak’s novel combines the subject of honour with the immigrant experience. Set in East London in the 70s, Shafak’s novel tells the story of the Toprak family, and the troubles that befall them after an illicit extra-marital affair takes place. Living in grey and grimy Hackney, the Topraks – a half Turkish, half Kurdish family from Urfa – are a rather incongruous bunch. Adem, a spineless gambler who ditched his family for a Russian prostitute, and his lonely plain-Jane wife, Pembe, have three children – Iskender, Esma, and Yunus. While Esma engrosses herself in her books, and the innocent, baby-faced Yunus joins a group of communist squatters, the troubled Iskender – or Alex, as his friends call him – falls in with the wrong bunch of kids, and slowly watches his bleak life take wrong turn after wrong turn. After their uncle Tariq – the antithesis of their shameful father – catches Pembe with another man outside a cinema, it’s up to Iskender to set things straight. After all, when his honour was in the hands of another woman, what was he but a mere domino? As Shafak explains, ‘They shared the same surname. If one of them was disgraced, shame would attach itself to him as the eldest Toprak. Their honour was his honour’. Read the full article here -- source link