The Bastard of Istanbul

One rainy afternoon in Istanbul; a woman walks into a doctor's surgery. 'I need to have an abortion'; she announces. She is nineteen years old and unmarried. What happens that afternoon will change her life. Twenty years later; Asya Kazanci lives with her extended family in Istanbul. Due to a mysterious family curse; all the Kaznci men die in their early forties; so it is a house of women; among them Asya's beautiful; rebellious mother Zeliha; who runs a tattoo parlour; Banu; who has newly discovered herself as clairvoyant; and Feride; a hypochondriac obsessed with impending disaster. And when Asya's Armenian-American cousin Armanoush comes to stay; long hidden family secrets connected with Turkey's turbulent past begin to emerge. 'Wonderfully magical; incredible; breathtaking...will have you gasping with disbelief in the last few pages' Sunday Express 'A beautiful book; the finest I have read about Turkey' Irish Times 'Heartbreaking...the beauty of Islam pervades Shafak's book' Vogue