This lyrical and moving tale juxtaposes the traditional and modern in Turkey and draws attention to human rights violations against women in the Middle East.
Fifteen-year-old Meryem lives in a rural village in Eastern Anatolia, Turkey. Her simple, conventional way of life changes dramatically after her uncle, a sheikh in a dervish order, rapes her and condemns her to death for shaming the family. Asked to carry out the "honor killing" is his son Cemal, a commando in the Turkish army.
So begins a long, mystifying voyage for Meryem as her shell-shocked cousin ushers her to the shining metropolis of Istanbul where another troubled soul, the Harvard-educated professor Irfan, embarks on his own journey of transformation one that catapults him into the heart of Meryem and Cemal's conflict. The crossed paths and interwoven destinies of these three characters makes for an affecting, by turns brutal and life-affirming portrayal of traditional and modern-day Turkey that no reader will soon forget.
"A brutal rape and the subsequent death sentence on the defiled girl draws one into the disparate worlds of traditional and modern Turkey. This exciting, sensitively written novel educates and illuminates not only the plight of women but also a society in conflict."
Barbara Goldsmith, Author and Historian
"Livaneli is an essential force in Turkey's musical, cultural and political scene."
Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Prize Winner and author of Snow
"The intersecting destinies of the three heroes present a portrait of Turkey at once tender and compassionate. I am sure they will have a deep influence upon French readers just as they have conquered the hearts of more than a hundred thousand of your compatriots."
President Jacques Chirac of France in a letter to the author
