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Internationally bestselling Turkish author Elif Shafak's new novel is a dramatic tale of families, love, and misunderstandings that follows the destinies of twin sisters born in a Kurdish village. While Jamila stays to become a midwife, Pembe follows her Turkish husband, Adem, to London, where they hope to make new lives for themselves and their children.
In London, they face a choice: stay loyal to the old traditions or try their best to fit in. After Adem abandons his family, Iskender, the eldest son, must step in and become the one who will not let any shame come to the family name. And when Pembe begins a chaste affair with a man named Elias, Iskender will discover that you could love someone with all your heart and yet be ready to hurt them.
Just published to great acclaim in England, Honor is a powerful, gripping exploration of guilt and innocence, loyalty and betrayal, and the trials of the immigrant, as well as the love and heartbreak that too often tear families apart.
"Shafak turns what might seem a polemic against honor killing in lesser hands into a searing but empathetic and ultimately universal family tragedy." - Kirkus
"Calls to mind The Color Purple in its fierceness of its engagement with male violence and its determination to see its characters to a better place. But Shafak is closer to Isabel Allende in spirit, confidence, and charm. Her portrayal of Muslim cultures, both traditional and globalizing, is as hopeful as it is politically sophisticated." - The Guardian (UK)
"Shafak is an unflinching writer…this is vivid storytelling…a gripping exploration of the darkest aspects of faith and love." - The Telegraph (UK)
"This is an extraordinarily skillfully crafted and ambitious narrative, with Shakespearian twists and turns, omens and enigmas, prophecies and destinies fulfilled …Shafak joins writers such as Hanif Kureishi, Zadie Smith, Monica Ali…who offer us fictional glimpses of London's Others." - The Independent (UK)
"[A] stunning novel…exotic, evocative and utterly gripping." - The Times (UK)
This information about Honor was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Ebru Bilun
Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish author of a dozen novels, including The Island of Missing Trees, which was short-listed for the Costa Novel Award, and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize. Her work has been translated into fifty-six languages. She holds a PhD in political science and has taught at universities in Turkey, the United States and the United Kingdom. She lives in London and is an honorary fellow at Oxford University.
Author Interview
Link to Elif Shafak's Website
Name Pronunciation
Elif Shafak: El-liff Sha-fahk
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