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The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak
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The Bastard of Istanbul (original 2006; edition 2007)

by Elif Shafak

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1,852689,035 (3.67)153
A Turkish teen is coming of age under the wing of her tattoo-parlor owner mother and her three aunts, befriending a cousin from San Francisco, and discovering a secret that links her family to the 1915 Armenian deportations and massacres.
Member:cuicocha
Title:The Bastard of Istanbul
Authors:Elif Shafak
Info:Viking Adult (2007), Hardcover, 368 pages
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The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak (2006)

  1. 00
    The Story of the Last Thought by Edgar Hilsenrath (gust)
    gust: Ook een boek over de Armeense genocide
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» See also 153 mentions

English (58)  French (3)  Italian (3)  Dutch (2)  Spanish (1)  Norwegian (1)  All languages (68)
Showing 1-5 of 58 (next | show all)
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  AnkaraLibrary | Feb 23, 2024 |
I wasn’t sure what to make of this when I started, while undoubtedly well written it just wasn’t pulling me in until about halfway. It’s a thinking book rather than a linear story with lots of subtext and philosophy thrown it, the plot also jumps around a bit between different narrators and times. I suppose ultimately the book is an amalgamation of past and present, dark and light, religion and secularism, family ties and loneliness, with one thing ultimately tying us all together ... food! ( )
  LiteraryReadaholic | Aug 13, 2023 |
This is a wonderful book.

Anyone who wants to understand the riddle that is Istanbul would want to read this book.

Shafak is originally Turkish - although she lives in London. She's deeply engaged with her mother country. Once at the Hay Festival, she talked to me about Turkish culture is a culture of forgetting. But with authors like Elif Shafak, Turkey will never be able to completely forget.

One part of the book that particularly resonated for me was her introduction to the Janissary's paradox - as follows:

The Janissary Paradox.

People who believe the Ottoman rule was righteous know nothing about the Janissary's Paradox. The Janissaries were Christian children captured and converted by the Ottoman state with a chance to climb the social ladder at the expense of despising their own people and forgetting their own past.

The Janissary's Paradox is as relevant today for every minority as it was yesterday. You are the child of expatriates! You need to ask yourself this age-old question time and again: What will your position be with regard to this paradox; are you going to accept the role of the Janissary? Will you abandon your community to make peace with the Turks and let them whitewash the past so that, as they say, we can all move forward

The oppressor has no use for the past. The oppressed have nothing but the past.
  aquamari | Apr 5, 2023 |
Elif Shafak is one of those rare writer whom i like to read most. Beautifully written about the intersection of Turkish family and American family ( )
  sana-nazar83 | Sep 11, 2022 |
The book was wild.
  eraj-riaz18 | Sep 4, 2022 |
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Epigraph
Once there was; once there wasn’t.
God’s creatures were as plentiful as grains
And talking too much was a sin...

  -- The preamble to a Turkish tale
              ... and to an Armenian one
Dedication
To Eyup and Behrazat Zelda
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Whatever falls from the sky above, thou shall not curse it.
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A Turkish teen is coming of age under the wing of her tattoo-parlor owner mother and her three aunts, befriending a cousin from San Francisco, and discovering a secret that links her family to the 1915 Armenian deportations and massacres.

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Penguin Australia

An edition of this book was published by Penguin Australia.

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Tantor Media

An edition of this book was published by Tantor Media.

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