This is a novel of current events that link East and West. Depicting Peri, a troubled Moslem girl growing up in Istanbul, and who made it to Oxford University, UK. Her father is secular and strives to get his daughter educated in the West and to be independent, whereas her mother is full of faith, religious and only concerned about Peri’s future from the traditional stereo-type perspective. These clashes in her home and conflict of religious allegiances moulded her into a troubled and confused girl, stepping away from home for the first time. Her fascination for reading and quest for knowledge, her growing infatuation with her charismatic professor, a controversial academic of divinity at Oxford, and her predicament living with her two other constantly-bickering housemates who are poles apart in terms of character, religious faith and beliefs, all eventually drive her to the edge.
This book is a compelling allegory of “Muslimus modernus”, the modern Muslim. It presents two possibilities of what a modern Muslim woman can be – secular and a modern rebel (or) a headscarf-wearing traditionalist. Both identify as feminist, but in very different ways. And there is the special Peri, smack in the middle with her longing for love, her search for knowledge and the extreme compassion she has for justice and the suffering of mankind. Her professor’s concept of God and teaching methods on the search for God is unconventional and controversial – wanting his students to challenge all religions and introduce the question of God as a unifying idea and a common quest. This infused Peri with all sorts of notions and, in making sense of her fragmented past, she becomes obsessed with her charismatic professor, who becomes more of a figment of creation in her mind.
The entire novel takes up one night in Istanbul and situated in the present when Peri is now married and a mother with children, but the writer flips you back and forth between Peri’s past memories in Oxford and the present, with each chapter. Her writing style is narrative and intellectual but the dialogue seems a bit slow in places. She also brings a touch of magical realism into the story, as Peri experiences intermittent visions of a baby in a mist, who brings her into contact with a spiritual world which can be both comforting and unsettling for her. The author considers Islamophobia, teacher-student relationships and terrorism of many kinds. To sum up, this book is a highly captivating, fierce and intelligent read, offering an interesting exploration of Islam, women’s position in society, cultural and national identity. I would definitely recommend this book and in fact, am already eagerly seeking out the author’s 18 other publications.
* A note on the writer Elif Shafak: Her works have prominently featured the city of Istanbul and dealt with themes of Eastern and Western culture, role of women in society, human rights issues, child abuse, and the Armenian genocide. She lives in London.
