Two teenagers falling in love, each questioning their parents' love, testing/clashing with their parents expectations and values. Two cultures/religions: American Christian vs. Kurdish Muslim. An earthquake which turns the lives of all the members of both families upside down and inside out. This is a sad story, a serious story, but also just the kind of book I like. I learned more about another culture/country. I was totally immersed in the story and didn't want to stop reading. Finally, I wavered back and forth in my sympathies and support for the beliefs and resulting actions of the various characters in this book. And I like that best of all because it really makes me question the basis for my own beliefs or values.

This is an impressive, moving novel that left me feeling rather bruised. In the aftermath of the Istanbul earthquake, Sinan Basioglu tries to hold his family together. But his nine-year-old son Ismail was traumatized by being buried in the rubble for three days (saved by the sacrifice of an American neighbor) and his seventeen-year-old daughter Irem, wounded by the knowledge that her parents do not love her as much as they love her brother, is clandestinely seeing an American boy, the neighbor’s son. Some reviews refer to this novel as a love story, but it’s not. Irem and Dylan are deeply unsuited to each other; indeed, their seems to be little attraction between them other than the lure of the forbidden. It is more a story about how difficult it is for two different cultures to interact with each other, when that interaction is fraught with troubling history and murky intentions. (Are the relief workers there to help, or to convert?) And it is about how completely trapped Irem is by the culture and family in which she has grown up. The ideas in this novel are powerful, but not encouraging. ( )

This book begins on the outskirts of Istanbul in 1999 just before a devastating earthquake strikes the area. Two families live in the same apartment building an American family Marucs and his wife and son Dylan, and a Kurdish family with two children Irem and Ismael. The lives of these two families become greatly intertwined when the American's wife dies trying to keep Ishmael safe as the earthquakes strikes. Irem on the other hand is becoming involved with the son Dylan much to the disapproval of her family. She wants more of a life that her mother has, and feels that she is not as important, and not loved as much by her father as Ishmael the son is. After the earthquake the family end up in a refugee camp where they must rely on missionaries who are Christian, and keen to impart their Christian beliefs to those in the camp. So in this book there is tension on many levels, between parents and children, between the Kurdish and American family, between the Muslims and the Christians, and within Irem herself as she is torn between the life her mother has and wanting something more but not being ready to throw away what she has. The characters and their struggles were very real to me. I enjoyed the book. It is not a feel good happy book but a real story that gave you a lot to think about This is a quote from the book that I really liked. It reminds me a bit of the Prophet on children “Our children are not ours. That is our mistake. We think they are. It seems so for awhile – but they aren’t. They never were.” ( )

Think The Kite-Runner meets Titanic. :D This is a great example of a sappy, dramatic love story. It's a well-written, lovely tale of a Kurdish Muslim girl and an American boy outside of Istanbul. The two start a secret relationship that escalates after a devastating earthquake. The families are tied together--his mother saved her brother during the quake--but the two shouldn't be together. Society is against them. It's quite the love story! ( )

In the debut novel “Gardens of Water,” an earthquake, both physically and metaphorically, shatters the lives of two very different families. This collision sets the families on a path of sacrifice and pain so deep the reader is compelled to continue, hoping for happy ending, yet unable to imagine what that resolution might look like.

Sinan, a devout Kurdish Muslim, lives with his wife, teenage daughter, and young son outside the city of Istanbul. In the apartment above them lives an American Christian, Marcus, with his own wife and teenaged son. After a party celebrating Sinan’s son’s entry to manhood, a devastating earthquake strikes. The earthquake does more than destroy these two families’ homes; it destroys everything each man holds dearest.

Soon Sinan’s family is living in an American refugee camp where Marcus attempts to befriend them. What was once an innocent flirtation between the two teenagers turns into a dangerous march toward rebellion. Their story is in some ways so typical of any teen love story, yet so much more dangerous in their setting. As his daughter’s rebellion swells and his son’s nightmares unfurl, Sinan labors to gather funds in order to return his family to the unspoiled small-town of his youth. There, Sinan believes, he can protect his family from Western influences. But, as the teen lovers hover dangerously close to an edge, the tension builds like a wall of loose brick awaiting another earthquake. The reader knows it’s coming, can feel the little aftershocks; yet when the proverbial earthquake happens, the reader is devastated along with the characters left standing.

“Gardens Of Water” might first appear a convoluted read, but the actual reading is so smooth and well driven one forgets the multi-layered complications involved in Muslim and Christian relations. The writing is vivid and enlightening with perfectly building tension. The teen scenes are “Romeo and Juliet” inspired, each heartbeat quickening the tale. My favorite quote from the novel is so very poignant (especially to this empty nest Mom): “Our children are not ours. That is our mistake. We think they are. It seems so for awhile – but they aren’t. They never were.”

This story also provides an exceptional look at the American influence in the world and the Muslim desire to hold onto it’s own traditions. There are enumerable cultural perspectives and the negatives of each religion are evenly portrayed. The appendix of author conversations offers further enlightenment.

“Gardens Of Water” is a brilliant story to be especially enjoyed by lovers of historical fiction, or those enjoying themes of conflict between religion, culture and modern ideals, or remorse for past decisions, or the blossoming danger of forbidden love.

...also reviewed on Many A Quaint and Curious Volume ( )