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Book Summary (from the publisher)

Nineteen-year-old Asya, like many teenagers, is full of rage. Feeling like an outsider in a family of suffocating women, she rebels against everything she thinks her family and culture expect from her. Born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey, Asya is the youngest female of the Kazanci family: There’s Petite-Ma, the delicate great-grandmother slowly losing her memories to Alzheimer’s; Grandma Gülsüm, a harsh woman who must bitterly corral an unruly bunch of daughters after her only son, Mustafa, flees to America; Auntie Banu, who chooses to live with her sisters rather than her own husband and channels her piety into a career as a soothsayer; Auntie Feride, who has spent her life careening from one mental illness to the next; Auntie Cevriye, a tightly wound, widowed high school history teacher; and Auntie Zeliha, the youngest, who runs a tattoo parlor and refuses to play by anyone’s rules. Zeliha also happens to be Asya’s mother.

Asya, an illegitimate child, is ignorant of her father’s identity and torn between wanting desperately to know the truth of her past and launching herself toward a future that is built independently of her unknown roots. Her conflicted feelings about the past take on more immediacy when her Uncle Mustafa’s stepdaughter, Armanoush, suddenly comes to visit. An Armenian American and a child of the Armenian diaspora who is struggling with the oppressive history of her ancestors, Armanoush hopes that by visiting the country where her family faced such sorrow and loss in the 1915 deportations and massacres, she can finally pin down her own identity. In Istanbul—a city stuck between East and West, past and future, simultaneously an inviting amalgam of stone, color, and sound and an impenetrable, deceptive façade—the two girls set in motion a series of events that uncover long-buried secrets that will link the two girls and their families together in ways no one could expect.

Shafak has created an intricately woven tale about the very different but equally difficult struggles of living with the past and trying to survive without one. Full of bold, unforgettable characters, The Bastard of Istanbul reveals that even the worst events are important ingredients in the recipes that make each of us who we are.

About the Author

Elif Shafak is one of Turkey’s most acclaimed and outspoken novelists. She was born in 1971 and is the author of six novels, most recently The Saint of Incipient Insanities, The Gaze and The Flea Palace, and one work of non-fiction. She teaches at the University of Arizona and divides her time between the US and Istanbul.

I just finished reading it; I was surprised that one of the main characters, the bastard, was a girl. Checking the dictionary confirmed that I was wrong to think the term applied only to males.

It was a good read, and I'd never have found it apart from it being the monthly selection.

I enjoy--and get frustrated by--novels with parallel stories that eventually intertwine. It takes me two readings to sort out the characters. I loved the detailed character development and gradual revelations of history.

At first most characters seemed merely grotesques, but they became loveable.

I had planned to read Snow by Orhan Pamuk for Turkey, but I'm glad to have found this through group reads.

I was drawn by the beautiful cover and also, Snow was a little tedious to read so I shall leave that for another time.

I loved the eclectic collection of characters and personalities. Ultimately, I identified very much with the way Zeliha and Asya resisted being told how to live, and do things their own way despite what others say. (Though I rebel in a much more quiet and subtle way!)

I would not have been aware of the Armenian - Turkish history if not for this book.

I enjoyed the author's colorful descriptions of Istanbul. I'm also a sucker for books with descriptions of food.

Kudos to a Turkish author for writing a novel concerning the Armenian genocide. Shafak does a great job depicting the attitudes and views of both the Turkish and Armenians. She also shows the reader the differences and similarities of both cultures in an (what I think is an) unbiased way. The Turkish government apparently doesn't share my views since the author was brought to trial for "insulting Turkishness" as a result of quotes made in this book.

I liked the character's personalities, the use of magical realism, and the plot twists. Reading this book makes me really want to go back to Turkey for a visit again.

I really enjoyed this book as well. Throughout reading it, I resonated with the theme of leaving the past behind, and applauded Armanoush for her need and will to rediscover the secrets of that past. I feel that this idea is much more universal than applying to just Turks and Armenians--it seems to apply to all immigrant cultures: anytime someone chooses a life in another part of the world, that which they fled must be shed to embrace the new beginning. Likewise, the next generations must rediscover the past to find where they came from and who they really are.

"Once there was; once there wasn't. God's creatures were as plentiful as grains and talking too much was a sin, for you could tell what you shouldn't remember and you could remember what you shouldn't tell."

I really like description of food in books as well. This book made me hungry, and I kind of toyed with the idea of trying out that ashure recipe just to see how it would taste.

I think the author was being quite unbiased and showed empathy as well as understanding for both Turks and Armenians. No matter how or why the genocide began, it's hard for the new generation to actually take responsibility for something they were not part of. Yet the children of the victims would definitely feel the impact of the event even if they were not part of it. Somehow there's just no simple answer to stuff like this, for example, I suppose the Japanese, Germans, British, Chinese etc. each felt like the victim of WWII.

This book was awesome. My imagination was having a field day. The images came alive for me especially with the scenery of Istanbul, Turkeys' capital. It also made me aware of the relationships between Armenians and the country Turkey. That was a surprise for me. Its great when you get new knowledge from books even if its fiction. My favorite parts were the Jinn and Aunt Banu. I love magic in Books!