An excellent and complex novel about loss. A muslim family of Kurds in Turkey copes with an earthquake. Their fate is intricately connected with their American neighbors. The author examines in detail the muslim religion and how the Kurdish family copes with the changes in their life. The treatment of women and their subjugation under Islamic law and the Kurdish tradition is at the core of the family's story.
Extremely well written, the author takes some risks with his storytelling. I don't want to reveal any plot-spoilers, but there are two narrators, and one of them undergoes a life-changing experience that is rare in a novel. But the author pulls it off with skill and sensitivity.
The treatment of the religion of Islam is powerful and complex. The comfort it gives the sufferers of the earthquake is clearly described, yet I couldn't help but be saddened by the barbaric and backwards aspects of the religion: the treatment of women, the honor killings, the resignation to fate and the lack of hope.
Yet the novel is not anti-muslim, or anti-Turkish or Kurdish. It is well balanced and surprisingly realistic in it's treatment of all the many religions and cultures present in Turkey.
Highly recommended.
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