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Tim O'Brien

964. Elif Shafak - Three Daughters of Eve


This is very good although I found the ending a bit of a damp squib. She writes beautifully in English about Turkey and Istanbul and the clash of religions and ideologies; it feel as if Turkey is the centre of the world where everything is in the melting pot.

The title is a bit misleading; Peri is the central character in the book which chronicles her upbringing in Istanbul with her war-ing parents, and her escape to Oxford where she ends up lodging with the two other girls; Shirin the rebel and Mona the devoted Muslim. Peri is caught completely in the middle, and cannot reconcile herself to either position.

The character of the Oxford professor Azur, who they all think might resolves these issues with his intellectual brilliance and onto whom Peri projects love, is the weakest bit for me.


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