I nearly went to Turkey. Once in the late sixties I was on a schools’ cruise ship in the Med. Turkey was on the itinerary but there were tensions about Cyprus between Turkey and Greece, and the captain decided to play safe and refused to dock there. I still haven’t visited and have to admit it is not on my wish list.
If Elif Shafak was working for the Turkish tourist board no one would ever choose to go there. Oh my goodness she is so, so harsh about the country where she was born and brought up. This Turkish/British writer (who lives in London and celebrates the freedom she enjoys here) is a very political person. I heard her speak at the Oxford Literary Festival in the spring. The subject was supposed to be her new book ‘Rivers in the Sky’ but she stated that she was more than happy to talk about Turkish politics … and she did, at length and showing a prodigious knowledge and understanding of current events.
This 2016 novel is a wonderful read. I couldn’t leave it alone and finished in a couple of days. Three Muslim girls from very different backgrounds meet at Oxford University. The main character is Peri who has grown up in Istanbul with a pious, religious mother and a father who is only Muslim by culture … and barely that. At Oxford she meets Shirin from Iran who appears to be loudly against everything that Islam stands for and Mona, who defines herself as Egyptian- American and an observant, practising Muslim by choice. They are the Three Daughters of Eve, Shirin the sinner, Mona the believer and Peri, well, she is just totally confused.
Therein lies the story. The narrative flips between Peri as a fresher at Oxford and as a wife and mother two decades later back in Istanbul. Everything about the conundrum of Turkey is used as material for this story. The river Bosphorus separates the Asian side of Istanbul from the European and this provides a very satisfying geographical metaphor. Where does Turkey wish to be? Democracy is discussed and whether a benevolent dictator is preferable. Where does Islam sit in the lives of most Turkish people and inevitably the role of women, within Islam and the world, in general is central to the whole story.
This may be the very best of all the Elif Shafak books I have read. Loved it.