The Bastard of Istanbul [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Elif Shafak (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 18, 2007

One rainy afternoon in Istanbul, a woman walks into a doctor's surgery. 'I want an abortion', she announces. She is nineteen years old, and unmarried. What happens that afternoon is to change her life, and the lives of everyone around her. Twenty years later, Asya Kazanci lives with her extended family in Istanbul. Due to a mysterious family curse all the men die by age 41, so it is a house of women, among them her beautiful, rebellious mother, Zeliha, clairvoyant Auntie Banu and bar-brawl widow, Auntie Cevriye. But when Asya's Armenian-American cousin Armanoush comes to stay, long-hidden family secrets and Turkey's turbulent past begin to emerge.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her second novel written in English (The Saint of Incipient Insanities was the first), Turkish novelist Shafak tackles Turkish national identity and the Armenian "question" in her signature style. In a novel that overflows with a kitchen sink's worth of zany characters, women are front and center: Asya Kazanci, an angst-ridden 19-year-old Istanbulite is the bastard of the title; her beautiful, rebellious mother, Zeliha (who intended to have an abortion), has raised Asya among three generations of complicated and colorful female relations (including religious clairvoyant Auntie Banu and bar-brawl widow, Auntie Cevriye). The Kazanci men either die young or take a permanent hike like Mustafa, Zeliha's beloved brother who immigrated to America years ago. Mustafa's Armenian-American stepdaughter, Armanoush, who grew up on her family's stories of the 1915 genocide, shows up in Istanbul looking for her roots and for vindication from her new Turkish family. The Kazanci women lament Armanoush's family's suffering, but have no sense of Turkish responsibility for it; Asya's boho cohorts insist there was no genocide at all. As the debate escalates, Mustafa arrives in Istanbul, and a long-hidden secret connecting the histories of the two families is revealed. Shafak was charged with "public denigration of Turkishness" when the novel was published in Turkey earlier this year (the charges were later dropped). She incorporates a political taboo into an entertaining and insightful ensemble novel, one that posits the universality of family, culture and coincidence. (Jan. 22)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* The new Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk has faced charges for making anti-Turkish remarks regarding the long denied mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Acclaimed Turkish writer Shafak has also been hauled into court for "insulting Turkishness." The case was dropped, and her bold and penetrating tale of the tragic repercussions of the Armenian genocide will live on. In her second novel in English following The Saint of Incipient Insanities (2004), Shafak tells a many-faceted, mischievously witty, and daringly dramatic story that is at once a study in compassion, a shrewd novel of ideas, a love song to Istanbul, and a sensuous and whirling satire. The novel's ruling force is gorgeous Zeliha, the unapologetically sexy proprietor of an Istanbul tattoo parlor. An unwed mother at 19, she has raised her daughter, Asya (now 19 herself and obsessed with Johnny Cash), in a chaotic, food-centric household that includes her mother, grandmother, and three sisters: Banu, the pious clairvoyant; Cevriye, the high-strung history teacher; and Feride, the neurotic. The sisters haven't seen their Americanized brother, Mustafa, for almost 20 years, and are stunned when his 19-year-old stepdaughter, Armanoush, whose mother is from Kentucky and whose father is Armenian, arrives in Istanbul to search for her Armenian roots. As Asya and Armanoush forge a tentative friendship unaware of all that they actually share, others panic over the looming revelation of shocking secrets. Shafak weaves an intricate and vibrant saga of repression and freedom, cultural clashes and convergences, pragmatism and mysticism, and crimes and retribution, subtly revealing just how inextricably entwined we all are, whatever our heritage or beliefs. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult (January 18, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0641904061
• ISBN-13: 978-0641904066
• ASIN: B000W0IEXS
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #909,167 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Elif Shafak was born in Strasbourg, France, in 1971. She is an award-winning novelist and the most widely read female writer in Turkey. Critics have acclaimed her as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary literature in both Turkish and English. Her novels include The Bastard of Istanbul and her recent memoir, Black Milk. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages. She is married with two children, and divides her time between London and Istanbul. Her website is at www.elifshafak.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best novels I have read recently, February 19, 2007

By 

delphil "del" (College Station, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bastard of Istanbul (Hardcover)

I must admit I do not read fiction that often but after having read this book recently, I must revisit this.

Simply put, a beautiful book.

I heard Shafak's interview on NPR with Terry Gross and found her comments engrossing so that I decided to buy the book.

The structure of the book is the Armenian genoicide and role of memory, past, present and future and the different roles they play in Turkish and Armenian society.

More than this, the travels through to the US and back, relate a sense of flightlessness which helps shape the feelings of identity. The look inside at the relationships among Turkish women is conveyed in a delightful manner. The intergenerational relationships and ties are also brilliantly expressed.

A must read, a really, really beautiful book.

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A novel of lovers in Turkey, May 29, 2007

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bastard of Istanbul (Hardcover)

Any review of Elif Shafak's latest novel, THE BASTARD OF ISTANBUL, is sure to mention the surrounding controversy. When the book was published last year in Turkey, Shafak ended up facing a prison sentence because of what her fictional characters say about the massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, a tragedy not officially recognized by the Turkish government. This drama could overshadow the book itself, but instead it should contribute to the poignancy of the story.

The titular bastard is Asya Kazanci, a young woman living in Istanbul in a house of eccentric and loving women. Asya is rebellious, even though her "aunties" are fairly tolerant. She is obsessed with the music of Johnny Cash, smokes cigarettes behind her family's back, and ditches the ballet lessons they pay for so that she can sit and drink in a cafe with a bunch of world-weary existentialists. Asya's rebellion is inherited from her mother, the stunning "auntie" Zeliha who had Asya when she was just 19 and now runs a tattoo parlor catering to the artistic and secular of Istanbul. Shafak suggests that Asya's rebellion is part of being an Istanbulite, and the city itself is a major character in the novel. Zeliha has never revealed the name of Asya's father, and much of Asya's identity is tied up in her being a "bastard." But her identity as a woman, as a Turk and as a daughter of Istanbul will be challenged when a bold Armenian American woman arrives on her doorstep.

Armanoush Tchakhmakhchian is a college student in Arizona. Raised between her Armenian family in San Francisco and her mother and Turkish stepfather in Tucson, she, like Asya, struggles with identity. She feels deeply connected to her Armenian ancestry and is often ashamed of the fact that her mother married a Turk, Mustafa, after she and Armanoush's father divorced. She decides that a trip to Istanbul, to explore her family's past and to reconcile her feelings for Turkey, will allow her to move on with her life and sort through some of her confusion. She decides to stay with Mustafa's family in Istanbul, and Mustafa's niece happens to be Asya.

When Asya and Armanoush meet, they each begin to sort out their personal, national and ethnic identities, and uncover several family secrets.

THE BASTARD OF ISTANBUL is both funny and sad. Shafak's prose, although sometimes heavy-handed, conveys the spirit of both young women and the city that connects them. Readers feel for the characters who, often kooky, seem quite real (and mostly likable). The violence against the Armenians is addressed with respect and without being preachy. It is only sentences such as this that can slow the story down: "If there is an eye in the seventh sky, a Celestial Gaze watching each and every one from way up high, He would have had to keep Istanbul under surveillance for quite some time to get a sense of who did what behind closed doors and who, if any, uttered profanities."

Shafak nicely blends realism with a touch of the supernatural and mystical for an enjoyable and subtly thought-provoking read. She evokes the sights, sounds, smells and especially the tastes of Istanbul; her portrait of the city is at once romantic and brutally honest. It soon becomes clear that, despite the title, Asya is not really the central character. The story focuses on the relationship between Asya and Armanoush as each tries to negotiate a partially concealed past and an unknown future. This allows the unfolding of the stories of the two families, the Tchakmakhchains and the Kazancis, and how they are deeply connected. By the end of the novel, family secrets are revealed, and while the characters learn much, Shafak allows them to maintain certain notions and prejudices even as she attempts to strip them from her readers.

In the end, despite some problems with the prose, THE BASTARD OF ISTANBUL is an interesting book from a young novelist who already has made her mark in world literature and deserves to be read apart from the surrounding controversy.

--- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Bastard of Istanbul, August 29, 2011

By 

Robin Friedman (Washington, D.C. United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Bastard of Istanbul (Paperback)

Elif Shafak's novel "The Bastard of Istanbul" is set in contemporary Istanbul with important scenes in Arizona in San Francisco. The novel was written in English and published in the United States in 2006. Earlier, in 2003, the novel was published in Turkey where it resulted in a prosecution of the author that was subsequently dismissed. The book has several themes, some of which are important, but all of which are patched together. The book examines the relationship between Turks and Armenians particularly in 1915. Many people have concluded that the Turks practiced genocide of serious proportions on the Armenians. The Turks officialy deny this. The novel shows modern day Turks and Armenians wrestling with their history and with the tragic earlier events. The book is also about two young women in their early 20s who are thrown together somehow and, who, like many people, struggle with with the illusive, ill-defined concept of personal identity. The book also is about the relationship between women and men as shown through the eyes of quirky, mostly appealing female characters, and much less sympathetic and largely absent men.

The plot of the book and the family structures are complex and tangled. There are two family groups. The first family is Turkish and located in Istanbul and consists of four sisters and no men. The men in the women's lives have died or disappeared in various ways. The sisters have a brother, Mustafa, who moved to the United States to study when he was 20 and who has remained in the United States, when the events of the book occur, at the age of 40. One of the sisters is mentally ill while another sister reads tarot cards and has clairvoyant powers, including two spirits which accompany and advise her. The sister that received the most attention is named Zeliha. Zeliha is a religious skeptic who dresses in short skirts and high heels. At the age of 19 she had a child out of wedlock, and she has never revealed the father. Her daughter is named Asya, who at the age of 20, is much like her mother in dress. Asya likes the music of Johnny Cash and reads French existentialists, particularly the wonderful book of Emmanuel Levinas, "Totality and Infinity". Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority (Martinus Nijhoff Philosophy Texts), which I read in my own graduate study of philosophy.

The second family centers on a young woman named Armanoush, or Amy for short. Amy is reserved and bookish and spends most of her time reading rather than trying to socialize with or appeal to young men. She is the daughter of an American woman, Rose, and an Armenian man from who Rose was subsequently divorced. For her second husband, Rose chooses a Turkish man, Mustafa, who has remained in America. Rose and Mustafa live a quiet, essentially contented life in Arizona. Amy's father and his extended Armenian family live in San Francisco and Amy spends her time between her father and his family and her mother and step-father Mustafa.

The two families and the two young women are awkwardly joined together when Amy decides to travel to Istanbul, a decision she keeps from both parts of her family. She invites herself to stay with Mustafa's sisters and during the visit becomes close to Asya. When she makes this decision, the book almost seems to be moving in the direction of a work which will study an American woman's reaction to Islam and women. But the author and Amy assure the reader that this is not the case. The purpose of Amy's impulsive decision to travel to Istanbul in Turkish-Armenian relations and Amy's own quest to understand these sources of what she sees as her identity -- in the person of her Armenian father and his family and her Turkish step-father and his family whom she has never met. The four sisters take her in, and Asya asks them about the killings of Armenians in 1915. The sisters profess ignorance.

As the book progresses, Amy and the reader see more of Istanbul and of Turkish-Armenian history from various perspectives. This portion of Turkey's past is also combined with many secrets and hidden events of Asya's family which become exposed as the plot develops.

I found the book awkward, contrived, and poorly written. The history of the Turks and the Armenians is buried under a welter of other much weaker material and, for the most part, is not told well. The characters in the Istanbul family are eccentrics and largely stereotypical. They are described in a sentimental, syrupy manner with predictable attention to meals and indulgent portrayals of the family cats. The intellectual interests of the two young women, particularly Asya's delight in Johnny Cash and her reading of Levinas, are forced and mannered and have little to do with any threads of the book. The author overwrites, pounds home her points repeatedly, and shows more than usual narratorial omniscience in commenting on the actions of her characters and their motivations. While the author and Amy are narrowly correct in disclaiming "Islam and women" as the theme of the book and of Amy's trip to Istanbul, the theme of gender relationships dwarfs the stated theme of the book of Turkish-Armenian history. The family of women, and the two young girls, are shown as independent, thoughtful, vulnerable, and human. The men are absent, boors, vulgar, at a loss for what to do with themselves, and worse. The gender themes of the book have nothing to do with Turkish-Armenian relationships and history. These matters crossed the line of gender. The focus on gender sterotypes and of male conduct at the most offensive level detracts greatly from the book or from any serious understanding of a part of history that deserves to be studied and understood.

In general, when I read a novel I don't like, I rate it three stars on grounds that most books, including this one, have some worthwhile passages and that a rating of two stars or less is overkill. But I seriously disliked this novel. The plot is replete with coincidence, the writing is poor, and the gender bias offensive. Thus, with some reluctance, I departed from my usual practice in rating this book.

Robin Friedman