Three Daughters of Eve
The sweeping historical novel about of faith, love and friendship from the bestselling author of There Are Rivers in the Sky
1st Edition
Published on 2. February 2017
384 pages
978-0-241-97887-0 (ISBN)
Description
Peri, a wealthy Turkish housewife, is on her way to a dinner party at a seaside mansion in Istanbul when a beggar snatches her handbag. As she wrestles to get it back, a photograph falls to the ground - an old Polaroid of three young women and their university professor. A relic from a past - and a love - Peri had tried desperately to forget.
The photograph takes Peri back to Oxford, where she was sent at eighteen, abroad for the first time: to her dazzling, rebellious professor and his life-changing course on God, to her home with her two best friends, Shirin and Mona, and their arguments about Islam and femininity and, finally, to the scandal that tore them all apart. Over one desperate night she tries to make sense of a past she has tried to forget - but can we ever escape who we once were?
The photograph takes Peri back to Oxford, where she was sent at eighteen, abroad for the first time: to her dazzling, rebellious professor and his life-changing course on God, to her home with her two best friends, Shirin and Mona, and their arguments about Islam and femininity and, finally, to the scandal that tore them all apart. Over one desperate night she tries to make sense of a past she has tried to forget - but can we ever escape who we once were?
Reviews / Votes
A terrific book. Poetic, poignant, trenchant. An intelligent, fierce and beguiling read * Financial Times * A thoughtful, charming book that offers a connection to other worlds, perspectives and possibilities * Sunday Times * An intense, discursive and absorbing novel * Observer * One of the most important writers at work today, Elif Shafak eloquently explores Turkey's tumultuous present and past. Her magnificent latest moves between Istanbul and Oxford in a fascinating exploration of faith and friendship, rich and poor, and the devastating clash of tradition and modernity * Independent * A brilliant and moving novel. Elif Shafak writes about religion without superficiality or special pleading, retaining a sense of its impossible possibility or its possible impossibility. Three Daughters of Eve is a remarkable accomplishment Elif Shafak's writing leaps off the page. In Three Daughters of Eve she takes us spine-tinglingly right under the skin of three women, exposing the strains of friendship through love and loss. An utterly engrossing read. Shafak's topical 10th novel is both an interrogation and a defence of Muslim identity * Financial Times * Luscious, heartbreaking, completely absorbing. It is a full-blown saga of emotion and character, straddling countries, cultures and languages, exploring its women's ambitions and desires; and at the same time a steady-eyed examination of the nameless rules - of femininity, duty, belief and behaviour - that keep us in line and under control. This is an absolutely consuming novel about women who know what they want, and a warning about the price we pay, written with the fluency and depth of an author at the very top of her game. Exuberant, epic and comic, fantastical and realistic . . . like all good stories it conveys deeper meanings about human experienceMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
File size
1,49 MB
ISBN-13
978-0-241-97887-0 (9780241978870)
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
Three Daughters of Eve
Book
05/2017
Penguin Classics;Penguin;Viking
€13.50
Available immediately
Elif Shafak
Three Daughters of Eve
Book
02/2017
Viking
€38.56
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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.
