In her second novel written in English, Elif Shafak, one of Turkey’s most outspoken writers, confronts her country's violent past in a novel about the tangled histories of two families in both Turkey and the United States.
Critic Reviews
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Outstanding
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Booklist Donna Seaman
Shafak weaves an intricate and vibrant saga of repression and freedom, cultural clashes and convergences, pragmatism and mysticism, and crimes and retribution, subtly revealing just how inextricably entwined we all are, whatever our heritage or beliefs. [1 Nov 2006, p.6]
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Outstanding
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Kirkus Reviews
A hugely ambitious exploration of complex historical realities handled with an enchantingly light touch. [1 Nov 2006, p.1099]
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Outstanding
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Library Journal Eleanor J. Bader
Despite heavy themes, Shafak is often funny, and her weaving of recipes and folk tales into the text makes it both enlightening and entertaining. [1 Nov 2006, p.70]
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Outstanding
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Boston Globe Kevin O'Kelly
Above all, Bastard is a novel about Istanbul, about loving a place until its rhythms , smells , and colors are under your skin. The Bastard of Istanbul is a fun, funny -- and finally moving -- book.
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Favorable
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The Economist
This is a deftly spun tale of two families - one Armenian-American and the other Turkish - who are burdened by dark secrets and historical tragedies rooted in a common Istanbul past.
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Favorable
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Publishers Weekly
She incorporates a political taboo into an entertaining and insightful ensemble novel, one that posits the universality of family, culture and coincidence. [13 Nov 2006, p.34]
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Favorable
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San Francisco Chronicle Saul Austerlitz
Shafak is incapable of bringing harmony to such unsettled matters, even in the pages of a fictional narrative. All she can do, and does, is shine a light on the past, and keep it shining so that everyone -- Turkish, Armenian, and otherwise -- must look.
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Mixed
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Washington Post Barry Unsworth
Irritation at the way the author seems sometimes to muffle up or undermine her own meanings is compounded with regret by the fact that a lot of the time the writing is very good, eloquent, bold, full of shrewd insights, with veins of satire and poetry and fantasy running through it, and turns of phrase that are witty and aphoristic.
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Mixed
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Entertainment Weekly Missy Schwartz
A noble effort, but the surplus of characters clogs the story's flow, resulting in a narrative hodgepodge.
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Unfavorable
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The New York Times Book Review Lorraine Adams
When the novel's skeleton finally dances out of its flimsy closet, it's clear that although Shafak may be a writer of moral compunction she has yet to become -- in English, at any rate -- a good novelist.
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Unfavorable
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Boston Globe Amanda Heller
[Shafak's] ambition outruns execution. Sensual imagery bumps up against tediously didactic passages, and the parallels between personal and national neurosis seem forced.
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Unfavorable
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Los Angeles Times Ben Ehrenreich
A serious novel of ideas with characters that at times seem borrowed from a sitcom soundstage and a plot founded in dark family secrets unearthed in high soap-operatic fashion.
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