The Bastard of Istanbul
Published on 30. April 2015
Book
Paperback/Softback
368 pages
978-0-241-97290-8 (ISBN)
Description
A gripping and beautiful novel from Elif Shafak, Booker-shortlisted author of The Island of Missing Trees and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World
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 will change her life, and the lives of everyone around her.
Twenty years later, Asya Kazanci lives with her extended family in Istanbul. A mysterious curse causes all the men to die by the age of 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 connected with Turkey's turbulent past begin to emerge.
'Wonderfully magical, incredible, breathtaking...will have you gasping with disbelief in the last few pages' Sunday Express
'A beautiful book, the finest I have read about Turkey' Irish Times
'Heartbreaking...the beauty of Islam pervades Shafak's book' Vogue
*** PRE-ORDER ELIF SHAFAK'S NEW NOVEL IN ONE BRIEF MOMENT ALL ETERNITY NOW ***
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 will change her life, and the lives of everyone around her.
Twenty years later, Asya Kazanci lives with her extended family in Istanbul. A mysterious curse causes all the men to die by the age of 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 connected with Turkey's turbulent past begin to emerge.
'Wonderfully magical, incredible, breathtaking...will have you gasping with disbelief in the last few pages' Sunday Express
'A beautiful book, the finest I have read about Turkey' Irish Times
'Heartbreaking...the beauty of Islam pervades Shafak's book' Vogue
*** PRE-ORDER ELIF SHAFAK'S NEW NOVEL IN ONE BRIEF MOMENT ALL ETERNITY NOW ***
Reviews / Votes
Unquestionably an ambitious book, exuberant and teeming . . . a novel crammed with characters and themes, not unlike Istanbul itself * Guardian * Wonderfully magical, incredible, breathtaking . . . will have you gasping with disbelief in the last few pages * Sunday Express * Heartbreaking . . . the beauty of Islam pervades Shafak's book * Vogue * A writer whose artistry matches her ambition . . . she has taken on a subject of deep moral consequence * New York Times * A brave and passionate novel Tremendous exuberance . . . I do like a writer with a purpose * Margaret Forster * An astonishingly rich and lively story ... handled with an enchantingly light touch * Kirkus * Overflows with a kitchen sink's worth of zany characters ... an entertaining and insightful ensemble novel that posits the universality of family, culture and coincidence * Publishers Weekly * A tender and spirited novel... Steeped in the sights, colours and smells of Turkey's capital, it grapples with the country's dark legacies * NPR Books * A beautiful book, the finest I have read * Irish Times *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 126 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
257 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-97290-8 (9780241972908)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Elif Shafak
The Bastard of Istanbul
The powerful novel about family secrets from the award-winning author of The Island of Missing Trees
E-Book
08/2012
1st Edition
Penguin Books Ltd
€8.99
Available for download
Previous edition
Elif Shafak
The Bastard of Istanbul
Book
04/2008
Penguin Books Ltd
€31.13
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Person
Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist, whose work has been translated into fifty-seven languages. The author of twenty books, fourteen of which are novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak's previous novel, THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY, was the UK's bestselling literary hardback novel of 2025, selling over 500,000 copies. Her work has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Women's Prize for Fiction, the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, amongst others, and she is currently nominated for 'Author of the Year' at the British Book Awards. Elif Shafak was appointed President of the Royal Society of Literature in 2025. Her books have sold several million copies worldwide.