The Bastard of Istanbul

Two families, one Turkish and one Armenian American, turn out to share a history neither has fully told, and Elif Shafak lets that history surface slowly. Asya Kazancı lives in Istanbul among an all-female household of aunts and grandmothers, while Armanoush travels from the United States to Turkey in search of her Armenian roots, and their lives intersect. Shafak moves between cities and generations, handling memory, denial and inherited grief with a novelist's patience rather than a polemicist's certainty. The domestic detail, food very much included, grounds material that could otherwise stay abstract. A closer look: • Alternates between Istanbul and Armenian American life in the United States • Deals with memory, silence and inherited family history • A large cast of women whose voices shape the narrative • A Penguin Publications edition of an internationally read novel For readers of literary fiction and translated world writing, this title can be ordered from Boipoka.