Umut: Hayat Akan Bir Sudur

by Ayşe Kulin

Osmanlı'nın gözdesi Bosna bir imza ile elden çıkarken,
Kulin ailesi Bosna'dan İstanbul'a göç ediyor, çöken imparatorluğun son maliye nazırı Ahmet Reşat sürgüne gidiyordu.
Sabahat ile Aram'ın aşkı ise tehcir olaylarının acısına yenik düşmeyecekti.
Yeni bir cumhuriyet, yeni bir şehir ve yeni bir yuva kurulurken hayat hep akan bir suydu Sitare, Muhittin ve herkes için...
Savaşlar, yıkımlar, sürgünlerin ardından Umut geliyor. Umut "Hayat Akan Bir Sudur"'da Kulin, Veda ile başladığı Osmanlı ailelerinin yaşamına, bu kez de Cumhuriyetin yeni kurulmakta olduğu sancılı yıllarda tanıklık ediyor. Akıp gitmekte olan günlük hayat derinden değişmekte, bu değişim aşklara, dostluklara, aile ilişkilerine, her şeye yansımaktadır.
Ayşe Kulin, bir kez daha okurlarına ellerinden bırakamayacakları, okuyup bitirdikten sonra anılarına katacakları bir armağan sunuyor.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Turkish Literature, Fiction, Turkish, Romance, Middle East, Roman

381 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Ayşe Kulin is a Turkish contemporary novelist and columnist.
Kulin graduated in literature from the American College for Girls in Arnavutköy. She released a collection of short stories titled Güneşe Dön Yüzünü in 1984. A short story from this called Gülizar was made into a film titled Kırık Bebek in 1986, for which she won a screenplay award from the Turkish culture ministry. Kulin worked as a screen writer, cinematographer and producer for many films, television series and advertisements. In 1986, she won the Best Cinematographer Award from the Theatre Writers association for her work in the television series Ayaşlı ve Kiracıları.

In 1996, she wrote a biography of Münir Nureddin Selçuk titled Bir Tatlı Huzur. With a short story called Foto Sabah Resimleri she won the Haldun Taner Short Story Award the same year and the Sait Faik Story Prize the next year. In 1997, she was chosen as the "Writer of the year" by the İstanbul Communication Faculty for her biographical novel Adı Aylin, She won the same award the next year for her short story Geniş Zamanlar. In November 1999, she wrote a novel called Sevdalinka about the Bosnian Civil War and in 2000, a biographical novel called Füreyya. In June 2001, she put out a novel titled Köprü about drama in Turkey's eastern provinces and how they shaped the republic's early history.

In May 2002, Kulin wrote a novel titled Nefes Nefes'e about the Turkish diplomats who saved in the lives of Jews during the holocaust in World War 2.

She has married twice, her latest novels Hayat and Huzun describe her life with her spouses, Mehmet Sarper and Eren Kemahli. Both ended in divorce but she bore 4 sons from the marriages.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel tells the story of a Muslim family living in Istanbul in the 1920s. The establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 meant that this was a period of great social and political upheaval for the people of Turkey. I enjoyed reading about the varying perspectives of the changes that were taking place, as each member of the family has a very different outlook. Each one of them has their own unique story to tell and the reader is thrown head first into the midst of them all, which meant for quite a bit of confusion at times. There is a helpful genealogy table at the beginning that I kept referring back to in order to keep everybody’s names straight and to familiarize myself with the relationship between each family member. Nonetheless, there were still times I found myself at a loss as to who exactly an individual was.

One of the female protagonists of the novel, Sabahat, is an intelligent young woman with a strong sense of self. She insists upon pursuing her education through high school and beyond. The reader is made aware that this was unusual for a Muslim girl living in Istanbul in the 1920s and thus the reader cannot help but admire her father for being so progressive and allowing his daughter her education. However, he is still a man of his time and he is devastated to find that his daughter has fallen in love with an Armenian boy. The Turkish-Armenian War is still fresh in many minds and therefore Sabahat and Aram find a lot of opposition to their relationship. Her father is particularly against it as Aram is a Christian and it is unthinkable for Sabahat not to marry another Muslim.

Overall I found this aspect of the story to be the most captivating and I was desperate to see if the relationship between Sabahat and Aram was strong enough to withstand everything that was thrown their way. Unfortunately their story became lost in the middle of so many others and I didn’t receive the closure that I would have liked from their story. In the epilogue the author briefly tells the reader what happened, but I very much would have liked for it to have been a part of the novel itself.

Perhaps Sabahat and Aram’s story takes a step back from being the focal point in order for the author to tell us more about a different couple. Sitare and Muhittin are two people that we follow separately through the pages of this novel until they eventually meet and marry. Sitare is Sabahat’s niece and therefore the two grow up in the same household, along with the rest of their very large family. Muhittin is a Muslim of Bosnian decent. His parents fled Bosnia before the Balkan Wars of 1912/1913 and were therefore spared from being caught up in a period of deep savagery. Muhittin was educated in Istanbul and becomes a very successful civil engineer. We follow both Muhittin and Sitare’s lives until their marriage and the birth of their daughter, Ayşe: the author of this novel. I cannot blame the author for wanting to tell her parents’ story.

Ultimately I did enjoy this novel and I was fascinated by this glimpse into such a compelling era of history. Sadly I spent a fair bit of time confused and had to go back and re-read different parts of the novel to try to understand who a person was or why they were doing what they were doing. I would recommend reading a brief history of the time period before you read, which is something I ended up doing as I was reading in order to give myself a better understanding of the novel itself.

[Srujan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is semi biographical, as I understand it. The author marks the timespan between her father's birth and her own birth by weaving a story around the historical events that took place in the erstwhile Ottomon society with a lot of fiction peppered in between. Like Kulin's rest of the books, this one is also translated but still remains fairly engaging to be honest. The plot isn't too complicated, pretty much the same as other book stories of the genre, family, love, political turmoil, births, deaths etc. So I will spare you the details, but if you are looking for a light read to take your mind off something else, or to catch a break from the heavier reads, this is a decent book. Nothing much to takeaway but it is entertaining I can say. :)

[nur ö. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ayşe Kulin’in kendisini ve ailesini anlattığı dörtlemenin ilk kitabı olan Veda’yı tam bir sene önce okumuştum. Şimdi de serinin ikinci kitabı Umut’u okumuş olmanın mutluluğunu yaşıyorum. Yazar, ailesini ve çevresini muazzam bir roman haline getirerek anlatmış. Akıcılığıyla, üslubuyla, tarihiyle, samimiyetiyle keyifli bir yolculuğa çıkarıyor okuyucusunu. Serinin devam kitapları Hayat ve Hüzün’ü bir an önce okumak için sabırsızlanıyorum. Çünkü Ayşe Kulin’in çocukluğunu, gençliğini ve ailesinin geri kalan yaşamında neler yaşadıklarını fazlasıyla merak ediyorum.

[ASoner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bu kitabi nasil olmus da okumadan kutuphanenin rafinda aylarca birakmisim. Bir solukta, hem gulerek hem aglayarak okudum kitabi. Herkese tavsiye ederim.

[Şahika · Rating 4 out of 5]

an itibariyle bitirdim ancak puanlamayı sonra yapacağım, Veda kadar güzeldi diyebilirim, inşallah en kısa zamanda devam kitaplarını da okurum

[Sarah]

I found myself extremely disappointed in this book, enough that I had to DNF @ page 101. It got to the point that I dreaded picking up the book; I even dreaded just the mere thought of the book. A part was I was just bored with it, but I had such high expectations that when they crashed and burned, I was bummed.

The story of a forbidden love between an Armenian boy and Muslim girl in a 1920s Turkey going through so much societal change and revolution is storytelling gold. The fact that it came from the author’s personal family history is just butter on top. Being so close to the past Armenian genocide (in which our male lead lost family) and in a Muslim county trying to find a balance between Western culture and Eastern values, this story carried tons of potential.

The author at least shined in the setting department. We get an intimate look at the family dynamics of a Muslim family in flux, going through drastic changes in their society and values system. The lush world of Islamic Turkey with a mixture of Christianity made for interesting reading.

Unfortunately, the author didn’t take full advantage of the book’s potential, giving us a muddle of too many characters and a choppy writing style.

The slew of characters is the main thing that got me. I could have understood the full range of family members for Sabahat and Aram; after all, they all have a bearing on how these two develop as individuals and how their relationship would grow or not.

However, when you get to a whole new family only remotely connected with Sabahat by a historical family origin place, I lost myself. I’m sure that given time or further story-telling, it would have become clear how everyone was connected. But I’m already lost in all the names so I couldn’t personally hold out to that point.

The way the story was divided up also threw me. Sabahat’s and Aram’s story was told in a chunk in the beginning. Then we cut away to the different family with all new people, family dynamics, and history. Maybe if things had been interwoven from the beginning, this sudden cut would have been easier to swallow. I don’t know. That sudden break is why I lost interest so quickly; since I was starting to get invested into our lovebird’s story, coming to completely different characters was hard.

To me, this book was full of misguided hope and broken expectations. It started out strong with a great setting and world-building. The story of forbidden love between our leads started to engage me. Yet, the author made a sharp veer into a new story and family with no warning. This lost my interest quick and made me dread trying to dive back in. So I didn’t. This book may work for another individual, but not me, it’s not enjoyable at all the way it’s written.

Note: Book received for free from a GR giveaway in exchange for an honest review.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received this book free from the publisher through NetGalley.

This book was amazing for the first 96% of the book. I kept picturing mist over an open field, I think because my thoughts were lingering on this book while driving through misty corn fields. Mist has a sparkling beauty about it, a kind of haunting that obscures the harsh realities of the truth. And that's how this book read, it was a love story that at times was beautiful, haunting or obscured. There were too many characters but being an autobiographical novel (?) it can't really be helped, these were the people who were there. I fell in love with the characters, I felt I was in Turkey in the twenties and thirties, and I didn't want it to end.

But end it did. And the ending, so abrupt, blowing all the mist away, diminished the magic of the story. Which is why I gave it four stars instead of five. But yet, even four days later, I still feel the story circling around me. There is magic to some books, and despite the ending, this book has it.

[Ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this, but, for whatever reason, I just couldn't get into it. At 15% I just wasn't interested in reading further. I suspect part of the reason could be the quality of the translation -- which wasn't bad, exactly, but very flat.

[Tamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

an amazing book, high talented author.

[Nuray · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of best books ever..

[Fisun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beni çok etkileyen ayşe Kulin kitaplarından biri daha... Ömrümde bu kadar kararlı, sağlam basan çok az kadın gördüm. Umarım bir gün tanışma şerefine erişirim.

[L F · Rating 3 out of 5]

This certainly is not the best of her novels. It is based on authors life. The book has just too many characters, all who played a major part of this book

Interesting, but not intriguing.

[HÜLYA · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bayıldım.Siradaki kitabı Hayat bulursam onu da okumak istiyorum .
Sabahat ile Aram'ın hikayesi yarım kaldı.

[Onur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kitaba konu iki aileden birisi Bosna’dan göçen Salih Bey ve eşi Gül Hanım’ın ailesi diğeri ise eski devletin Maliye Bakanı Reşat Bey ile eşi Behice Hanım’ın ailesidir.

Salih Bey’in İstanbul’a alışması zaman alacaktır. 3 çocukları olacaktır. Nusret, Muhittin ve Saadet. Mühendis olan Muhittin’in yolu yıllar sonra Reşat bey’lerin torunu Sitare ile kesişecektir.
Reşat Bey bir süre Avrupa’da sürgünde kalmıştır, sürgünden dönüp tekrar aileye katılır ve Banka müdürü olarak tekrar işe başlar. Behice Hanım’ın ise 3 kızı vardır. Leman, Suat ve Sabahat.
Leman ve Suat evlilerdir, çocukları ve damatlarla birlikte köşkte yaşarlar. Sabahat’ın Kolejden Aram isimli bir Ermeni ile yakın arkadaşlık kurar. Aram’ın ailesi Merzifon'dan olaylardan kaçar, İstanbul’a yerleşirler. Bu arkadaşlık daha sonra büyük bir aşka dönüşecektir. Ama çevre onları rahatsız edecek, tartaklayacaktır. Aileleri de bu ilişkiyi istemeyeceklerdir, ama onlar birbirlerini sevmeye devam edeceklerdir.
Ama Sabahat bu kararı Babası Reşat Bey’e anlattığında ortalık yıkılacaktır, Reşat Bey intahara teşebbüs edecektir, aşıklar şimdilik bu kararlarını erteleyeceklerdir.

Muhittin ise önce Adana’da sonrada Ankara’da önemli pozisyonlarda çalışacaktır. Sitare’nin babası Mahir Bey’in erken, zamansız ölümü sonrası okulu bırakacak ve onu görüp aşık olan Muhittin ile evlenmeye karar verecektir.

[Viditi Bhargava · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a really enduring story. I enjoyed the moments where long-words-and-description was used for a scene. It made me feel I was present there. Though I believe this book dragged my patience a bit. Not at all a quick read, this is.

[Urenna Sander · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Love in Exile, the author writes of the illicit love between her great aunt, Muslim, Sabahat Yedic, and Christian Armenian, Aram Balayan. Both met as teenagers when they attended the American School in Istanbul, Turkey. Although Sabahat was three years older, to Aram, it was love at first sight. Aram confessed his love three years later to his close friend Sabahat. She felt the same. Yet their background differences deterred them being public.

Aram had been brutally beaten twice by street ruffians because of his and Sabahat’s romance. After his last beating, he quit university. When Sabahat discovered Aram had left school, she also resigned. Aram’s mother, who had lost his father during Turkey’s massacre of Armenians, tried to prevent Aram from seeing Sabahat.

Besides, it was the late 1920s or early 1930s and parents still arranged marriages for their daughters. But Sabahat, the Yedic’s youngest daughter, had freedom her two married, older sisters did not have when they were her age. Sabahat completed high school and with her father’s blessings attended university. She was even privileged to choose her own husband. Her father, Resat Bey, did not approve of her choice and asked her to leave his home. Iron-willed and unwavering, a tearful Sabahat complied until her father attempted suicide. After her father’s attempt at suicide, a guilt-ridden Sabahat promised not to marry Aram nor anyone else.

Sabahat’s family found her a job in a nearby city. Unknown to her and Aram, her brothers-in-law used contacts unfairly to have Aram enlisted into the Army, far away from home. Sabahat and Aram found each other through her friend and his brother; they corresponded by letter.

Sabahat and Aram’s love was immeasurable. She and Aram married later in life, after her eldest sister, Leman’s daughter, 18-year-old, Sitare, married the author’s father, Mulhittin Kulin.

The biography is interesting concerning the family’s origin; the Yedic’s and the Kulin’s had migrated to Turkey from Bosnia during an upheaval in their own country. They might have experienced disdain because of language and cultural differences, but they had the same religion in common with the Turks.

I liked the family dynamics—four generations all living under the same roof, sharing commonalities. Except for marriage out of your religion, the family showed love and respect for each other.

[Patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

A (very slightly) fictionalized account of a family living in Istanbul in the 1920s and 30s – that is, immediately after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and during the early establishing years of the Turkish Republic. The focus is very much not on politics, but on the internal life of a family: marriages, pregnancies, achievements in school, parties, clothes, food, living arrangements, and so on.

It's hard to summarize this novel, because there's not much of a plot; it's a series of disconnected incidents, very much like if you tried to write down all the various stories and legends of your own family verbatim – which indeed seems to be more or less the case. So many scenes appear and disappear without any connection to what happens before or after: "oh, here's the story about the time our aunt had a bad time at a party", "here's the story of our cousin's graduation", "here's the day we discovered sister's diary behind a dresser and read it secretly". There's no particular beginning or end, and no momentum from one to the other. The closest thing to an overarching thread is the relationship between Sabahat, the youngest daughter of a rich, formerly aristocratic Muslim family, and Aram, a Christian Armenian (the Armenian genocide, despite being fairly central to Aram's backstory, is handled with the briefest of mentions, but not denied). However, they frequently drop from focus and the book ends without resolving their story – it's apparently continued in another book by Kulin – so it's hard to credit that as the central plot.

My other complaint – also probably related to this being about the author's real family – is the sheer number of characters thrown at the reader. The first five pages literally introduce sixteen named characters (I counted!), which is a hell of a hurdle to get over before one can sink into the book. And then ninety pages later Kulin does it again, switching focus to an entirely different family with its own family tree that needs to be memorized. That said, the writing is quite nice on a sentence level, and it's certainly an easy, enjoyable read. The setting and time-period is fascinating, even if I would have liked slightly more about politics and other outside events.

I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.

[Bookfan36 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book tells the story of two Muslim families living in Istanbul during the 1920’s and 1930’s, one of Turkish decent and the other of Bosnian origin, who come to the capital just before the Balkan wars of 1912/13. The story is set in an interesting time from a historical perspective, when great political and social change was occurring in Turkey.

The main character in the book, Sabahat, is a bright young Muslim woman who wants more out of life than just marriage and who with the support of her progressive father pursues an education. Something that was not common for a woman at the time, despite the changes to social acceptances that had occurred.

However Sabahat never counted on falling in love with Arram, an Armenian boy. Their love encounters a lot of resistance from her father and both their families, especially since it is still not acceptable in the wider community for a Muslim woman to marry a Christian.
In the second half of the book Sabahat and Arram’s story takes a bit of a backward step as the tale of Sabahat’s niece Sitare and partner Muhittin is told.

The book is well written. The culture and landscape are vividly depicted which makes the book captivating. The characters were complex and well developed. It was interesting to read how each of them was affected differently by the social and political upheaval happening at the time.
My only criticism concerns the fact there were a lot of minor characters which at times made it difficult to keep track of who-was-who and their interrelationships. However the family tree at the beginning does help with this.

Overall a vividly written book set in an interesting time in history. Fans of historical fiction or literary fiction will enjoy it as I did.

Review copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.

[Debbie is on Storygraph · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lyrical novel about the author's family history. The story ends with her parents marrying and her birth, but the focus until that point appears to be her aunt Sabahat's forbidden relationship with Aram, an Armenian. Interspersed are other family dramas, all presided over by the kind patriarch Resat Bey.

This book took me a long time to finish. The language was lovely and the slow pace of the novel necessitated my slowing down my reading speed. I loved the characters, though the large number of them and their relationships to one another took a long while to get straight. The backdrop for the novel is Turkey becoming an independent state and modernizing. This isn't something I was familiar with before, but I found it fascinating to see the change reflected in this one family through the years. Interspersed with the family's story is that of Muhittin, a young and promising engineer. Eventually, his story dovetails with that of the family's, as he is the author's father.

I will admit to be a bit disappointed that the focus changed toward the end away from Sabahat and Aram toward Muhittin and Sitare, because I really did want to see how their story resolved. I am heartened to see in the epilogue that the two eventually married but wished it was actually depicted in the pages of the book since it was such a large focus of the story.

Still, a lovely novel of a country and time that many in the US don't know much about. I'll definitely have to read more by this author. As an aside, the translator did a wonderful job, I thought.

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley.

[Jennifer Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love in Exile by Ayse Kulin, translated by Kenneth Dakan. It is a family saga told between 1903 and 1941 during turbulent times in Turkey. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the Balkan Wars and World War I, families were torn apart by politics and war. It is also a love story of two people who must find a way to be together despite their families’ differences and objections.
Sabahat Yedic is a beautiful and intelligent woman who wants to peruse her education despite the cultural expectations that she finish. She has the drive and stubbornness to stand up against cultural expectations to follow her dreams. Raised in a Muslim family, she believes her life is meant to be more than just a good marriage and children. She convinces her family to let her continue her education. She meets the handsome Aram, a young Armenian Christian man who matches her desire for knowledge. They soon fall in love and despite their families’ objections, they defy traditions and risk everything to be together. Will Sabahat and Aram finally have the life they dream of? Or with culture, politics and war keep them apart?
Based on the author’s own family history, it is a beautiful of star-crossed lovers. The descriptions of the time and of the city of Istanbul helped bring the story alive and the story felt real. I felt as if I was there. However, there were many minor characters with no real sense of who was who and how they fit in the story. My advice is to read slowly, soak up the families, the cultures, the place and the upheaval of the time. I recommend Love in Exile for those who enjoy stories with twists and turns of historical times and a story of love conquering all.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full Review
Love in Exile by Ayse Kulin is a family narrative told between 1903 and 1941 during difficult times in Turkey. It occurs after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the Balkan Wars and World War I. During this time families were torn apart by politics and war. This story is not just about war and difficult times but also a love story of two people who must find a way to be together despite their family differences and objections.

Sabahat Yedic is a lovely and smart woman who wishes to peruse her education despite the cultural expectations that she finish. She is driven and stubborn and stands up for her wish to complete her goal. Sabahat's family is Muslim. Her family taught her that as a women she should have a good family and children but she believes that her life should be so much more. She persuades her family allow her to continue her education. Sabahat meets a handsome mane named Aram, who is a young Armenian Christian. He has many qualities and views that match the same views of Sabahat. Soon after meeting they fell in love. The two love birds could have allowed their families to dictate who they love but decided to not allow their families choose who to love. They withstand traditions and risk everything to be together.
The descriptions of the city of Istanbul during the time of the story allowed for the story to come alive. I could feel the love and everything that surrounded me as I read.

I received this book from the published via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

[Ambre · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book free from the publisher through NetGalley.

This is the story of a young Muslim girl who falls in love with a young Armenian boy during the building of the Republic of Turkey. When times are changing, when it seems that the government is becoming more modern. the young couple is reminded that the old ways are still very present and that most times old wounds will never heal. While learning at American schools in Turkey, it is mixing children from different regions, which means different cultures and religions. We all know when this happens, friendships and amorous relationships can develop within this diverse group. While the children seem ok with this, the elders are frantic with the new changes. Because progress is scary, no matter what era we live in.

Sabahat and Aram stick to their love and principals, no matter what their families believe. Even when faced with disownment and violence they hold strong. Although, I did feel, with so many other characters, that their story was a little sidelined and focus was put on the other characters. I loved the other characters as much but I wanted more Sabahat and Aram. That would be my only flaw with this story.

I always love this author's stories and characters. I will always read her books, I just wish all of them were translated in english for me to read.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book through Goodreads' First Reads program. This was a look at two different families in Turkey during the early part of the 20th century. There is a fairly large cast of characters, I found the family trees in the book very useful, and used them for reference more than once. The story itself is twofold: part of it tells how the the author's parents met, the other part tells of her Muslim Turkish aunt's love for a forbidden Christian Armenian boy. I really enjoyed reading this, though the competing stories and complex cast of characters meant I sometimes got a bit discombobulated. Overall an interesting look at daily life during a tumultuous time in around and after the end of the Ottoman empire. It was a good read, and I am interested to read more books by the author.

[Mirachil27 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary Book

What a beautifully written extraordinary story! I could not put it down and actually read straight through the night, prefering to stay up with these exotic, colorful and passionate characters. The fact that these people are actually the author's forebears adds an extra dimension to the generational saga. I will actively look for the rest of Ayse Kulin's books centered on this fascinating family. I learned so much about the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the formation of the country of Turkey with its multi-ethnic population. I want to learn more. This is a rich reading experience from start to finish.

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley.

I wanted to enjoy this book. I really did. But I got bogged down by all the history, which was interesting but was inserted in such a way that it took me out of the story entirely. I also felt that there were too many characters and not enough help keeping them straight. I wanted to read it because the blurb said it was the story of two people in love, but those two specific people played an incredibly minor role in the 30% of the book that I read. I found it to be very disappointing.

[Kerri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I vacillated between 4 and 5 stars. There were parts that I really liked and others that I thought were amazing. So, I would call it a 4.5, but absolutely worth reading and that pushed me to give it 5 stars. It is a beautifully written book with wonderful insight and perspective on an interesting time and place in history. My only complaint is that it ended so abruptly, but the author did a good job of explaining why in the epilogue and I look forward to reading the rest of Aram's and Sabahat's story in the future.

[Pratibha Suku · Rating 3 out of 5]

Smooth.
Family History.

With this I would like to add that despite author's claim or how goodreads review claim it,

With only hope to guide their way, they defy age-old traditions, cross into dangerous territory, and risk everything to find their way back to each other.

The story put it up as an easy act or may be it look easy from todays point of view when parents/family have discovered /invented new melodramatic act(s) to hold intercaste/inter religion marriage.

[Heather Painter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book! I'm starting to really like this author!

This book started off a little slow, and I was a little confused by the two story lines at first, but the second half of the book was VERY interesting, and the two story lines eventually connected. The ending surprised me, in a good way. This is the second book of hers that I've read, and I've learned some interesting things about the nation of Turkey, and its history. I would definitely like to read more of her books!

[Ayse Mehmet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bir saheser daha 7 gun gibi bir surede okundu ve bitti. Turk toplumunun gelkenek ve aile hayatini bu derece guzel akici ve surukleyici bir romana donusturmek kolay olmasa. tavsiye nolunur . Veda guzeldi anlatim tarzida ancak Umut cok daha farkli duygular ve olaylari islemis . Kendi hayatimi , coculkugumu kalabalik bir ailede buyumus olmanin renkli olaylari bu kitapta buldum adeta zevkli bir roman .

[Tim Dugan · Rating 2 out of 5]

oh, it describes a too 'soft' or too idealistic world. yes there was conflict, but I didn't take any of it seriously. culturally it had some good info but everyone had servants, etc. didn't feel too realistic.

how could the muslim Turkish girl not know why the Christian Armenian boy was verboten? and...did I miss it...what happened with them? (Maybe it's continued in another book)

I get the impression there is an autobiographic aspect to this story