The Bastard of Istanbul (by Elif Shafak)

(Amazon UK link)

I had never heard of the author of this book, Elif Shafak, nor had I heard of ‘The Bastard of Istanbul’. It’s not the kind of title that would appeal to me at all if I’d seen the book, either. But it was the novel assigned for this month’s local reading group, so I bought it from ‘Awesome Books’ a few months ago, and started reading it just three days ago…

I liked the style immediately. The writing is crisp and incisive, with just enough description - some of it a tad ironic - to ensure that I didn’t skim. On the other hand, the number of characters (some with very similar names) is, at times, overwhelming. The first person we meet is a young woman of nineteen called Zeliha, in Istanbul, on her way to a doctor’s appointment. I wish I hadn’t read the blurb on the back which says exactly what she was planning to do, but it’s revealed pretty quickly anyway.

Zeliha is the rebel of her family. She’s the youngest of five siblings, and lives with her three older sisters and their mother, and also her grandmother. The men in the family all die young - different accidents or circumstances have made this happen, but the older women see it as destiny, perhaps something to do with the ‘evil eye’. The only living male in the family is Mustafa, the fourth sibling, who has moved to America.

The story then moves nineteen years ahead, and we meet a different set of characters who live in the United States. Rose was married to an Armenian man called Barsam but struggled too much with his somewhat possessive family - they don’t all live together, but congregate regularly. There are several sisters, a mother and grandmother. Barsam and Rose had a daughter, Armanoush, but when they separated Rose shortened her name to Amy.

There are many flashbacks in the book, and one of them introduces Rose’s second husband, Mustafa - the brother from Istanbul - whom she gets involved with, initially, because he is Turkish and thus the natural enemy of her first husband and his family. So Armanoush grows up spending time with her very American mother and Turkish stepfather, alternating with visits to her strongly Armenian father and his family, feeling torn between the two cultures.

The story really starts when Armanoush decides that she will travel by herself to Istanbul, to see if she can find the house where her grandmother lived before being thrown out of the country nearly 100 years earlier. She hopes to find out more about her family’s background - and she also carries within her some deep hurts, as the Armenians were treated very badly by the Turks when the Ottoman Empire collapsed.

The author is herself a Turk, and got into some trouble for writing what she did, exposing some of the horrors that the Armenians suffered. The Armenian Americans still held strongly to their hurt, seeing it as part of their heritage, considering all Turkish people to be their enemies. Whereas, as Armanoush learns, the Turkish people, mostly ignorant of the past, are shocked and saddened when they learn about it, but feel that everyone should move on and accept each other for who they are in the present.

In Istanbul, the four women have grown older, but Zeliha has not changed. She is still the family rebel, wearing short skirts and running a massage parlour. And she has a nineteen-year-old daughter called Asya. When Armanoush comes to visit, the two are pushed together as if they were small children, but despite initial resistance, they develop a tentative friendship in a way that I found quite moving.

On the whole I thought the writing was extremely good. There are touches of humour - some of the people are very caricatured, and there are plenty of short scenes that provide a light-hearted foil to what is quite a significant story, covering many contemporary issues as well as the historic massacre of the Armenians. There's a great deal about food - each chapter heading relates to an ingredient of a Turkish/Armenian dish, and many similarities are drawn between the eating habits of the two cultures.

Towards the end there are some surprises. I could see one of them coming from early in the book, but was not expecting a couple of others - though one of them is really only revealed in a way that felt almost like cheating, via a djinn that sits on the shoulder of one of the aunts. The novel ends quite abruptly, I thought, but then leaves the reader to decide what the future might hold.

Some ‘adult’ content, but overall I thought this excellent, and well worth reading.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's Book Reviews