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I've not read another book quite like this one. It's rich in Turkish/Kirdish culture - yet its literary fiction written in English.
I can't ever remember reading a novel about an honor killing in the Muslim culture. Had Elif Sha
This is such a phenomenal- interesting - page -turning very enjoyable novel. I was drawn into the storytelling instantly....[ I THINK EVERY ONE OF MY FRIENDS WILL BE TOO].....it's mesmerizing and brilliant. This is also my first book by Elif Shafak. It won't be the last.I've not read another book quite like this one. It's rich in Turkish/Kirdish culture - yet its literary fiction written in English.
I can't ever remember reading a novel about an honor killing in the Muslim culture. Had Elif Shafak not been such a gifted storyteller — it could have felt like reading
Wikipedia. But this novel was equally fascinating historically as it was emotionally.
Iskender Toprak was only 16 years of age, Turkish/Kirdish origin, when he stabbed his mother, Pembe Toprak, to death in Hackney in an act of honour killing in front of his family Home on Lavender Grove.
Pembe, 33 years old, mother of three, (Iskender, Esma, and Yunus), had an extramarital affair. Pembe, no longer lived with her husband, Adem, ( who has a gambling addiction), although they remained married.
When the father is absent, the mother's honour is guarded by the eldest son, which in this case was Iskender. Police were investigating whether the teenager acted alone or if he was used as a pawn by other family members to carry out a collective murder plan.
In 1970, the Toprak Family moved to England, from Istanbul ( living in a small village in Euphrates), shorty before Yunas, youngest child was born. Pembe' twin sister, Jamila, stays behind and becomes a virgin midwife.
This book is many things —� it's an immigration story—(Muslims living in England) a story about honour, couture, pride, and its a story about marriage and family. Struggles, taboos, dreams, betrayal, love,loss, regret, grief, and the inequities of the ancient ways between men and women.
A heartbreaking story....written with skill and compassion - thought provoking - and a downright utterly fabulous read!!!!!
Thank you *Isa*, very much for the gift of this book .....
..... and thank you for introducing me to an author I had never read - which would have been a missed opportunity!
A heart-touching novel about the misleading meaning of honor in the east and some other countries all over the world , honor that concerned only with bodies, women bodies !
This is the story of Pembe and Jamila , Kurdish-Turkish twins and their suffering though life among the retardation ,superstition and injustice .
After reading the Bastard of Istanbul i decided to read more for Elif Şafak , she handles important and comp
" if there is no harmony inside that person, he will always be angry "A heart-touching novel about the misleading meaning of honor in the east and some other countries all over the world , honor that concerned only with bodies, women bodies !
This is the story of Pembe and Jamila , Kurdish-Turkish twins and their suffering though life among the retardation ,superstition and injustice .
After reading the Bastard of Istanbul i decided to read more for Elif Şafak , she handles important and complicated cases in such fantastic rationality and neutrality , there are no bad guys, only there are humans that as much as they make mistakes she keep giving an explanations for their attitudes .
As the bad Community that Adam brought-up in was a reason to his transformation to that bad father , and the same reason why he didn't marry the one he loved . The way that Adam was , was one of the reason to make Iskender the angry teenager .
"Never had it occurred to him that you could deceive the person you held dear. It was his first lesson in the complexity of love."
The lies that the mother Pembe lied when she promised him as he was a child that she would not make the doctor circumscribe him , and when he trusted his father that he would not kill the sheep .. but then they let him down , they lied , they lost him at these points but they didn't recognized that until he did his crime .
And the most important thing , the little secrets that we ignore and won't tell our partners about them and how could they grow bigger and bigger until they choke or even turn worst , they make as lose the people we love and ourselves .
And these contradictions of men they drink , gamble and have sexual relationships and contaminate their honor while forcing their wives and sisters to polish theirs !
"some women are married and alone ,some like me are merely alone "
As usual Elif showed amazing indirect meanings and lessons , in an interesting way she fancies you and makes you feel that the novel is more than ordinary at the beginning and at the last third she turns the table and make you think again and re-read some pages again , amazes you at the end .
The third novel i read to Elif and absolutely won't be the last .
But what happens when such an act results in a kind of introspection by the perpetrator. When the dark, dingy cells of a prison, lets the murderer come to face with the darkness inside his own heart. When the burden of his own act gets the better of him and he looks for penance, which might never come his way.
This book has at its heart, one such murder – that of a mother by her teenage son. But this book is also so much more than that. It is a window into a world largely unknown to the developed world, into its customs and mores. It effectively portrays the deprivation of a world that clings to its traditions and rituals to keep a sense of belongingness intact. More importantly, it brings to the fore, the muffled voices of the oppressed women as well as of the sometimes-confused voices of the oppressor, who have never questioned the long held beliefs, who haven't felt liberated either from the societal expectations.
And then this book is a page turner too. I was left in awe of Shafak's ability to hold reader's attention with a fast pacing plot, which gratifies literary senses too.
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Honor by Elif Shafak is a tragic story of a shocking honor killing that stuns and shatters the lives and hopes of a Turkish emigrant family living in London in the 1970s.
This book opens with a very strong and beautiful dedication from the author which reads as follows;
When I was seven years old We lived in a green house, one of our neighbours a talented tailor would often beat his wife. In the evenings we listened to the shouts, the crys the swearing. In the mornings we went on with our live
Honor by Elif Shafak is a tragic story of a shocking honor killing that stuns and shatters the lives and hopes of a Turkish emigrant family living in London in the 1970s.
This book opens with a very strong and beautiful dedication from the author which reads as follows;
When I was seven years old We lived in a green house, one of our neighbours a talented tailor would often beat his wife. In the evenings we listened to the shouts, the crys the swearing. In the mornings we went on with our lives as usual. The entire neighbourhood pretended not to have heard. Not to have seen.
This novel is dedicated to those who hear, those who see.
The stroy within the novel is tragic and powerful and certainly does make you ponder on the lives of those women who deal with situaltion like this everyday. The authors writing and account of an emigrant family living and adapting to life in London in 1970 is very well portrayed. I found the writing good and the characters real and vivid.
The narrative does get a little confusing at times as the stroy deals with a lot of characters and goes back and forth between diffferent time spans, countries and characters and at times the story became quite disjounted for me as a result. I was disappointed with the ending of the novel as it just didn't work for me.
Overall an interesting book and in places very powerful stroy telling from Elif Shafak and I would certainly look out for more books by this author.
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I do think the topic of honor killings is important to address, and I wish it had more clarity in these pages. Then I could recommend it as a fictionalized resource, perhaps.
Although the chapter headings were very clearly marked with location and date, I think they could have been better shuffled to reveal some key items of interest earlier.
An honor killing in London is not your typical theme for a novel, so the characters radiating out from this event were interesting to get to know. I was drawn in by the twin sisters and enjoyed how it came to light that the sister who found love was left alone. The twin who did marry had reasons other than passion for doing so.Although the chapter headings were very clearly marked with location and date, I think they could have been better shuffled to reveal some key items of interest earlier. Had I known sooner why Jamila was alone, her character would have pulled more empathy from me. She was an interesting young lady, and additional details about her life, as opposed to that of Adem, would have drawn me toward her character. It wasn't until nearly too late that I felt a connection with her.
Similarly, I might have cared more about Adem and how his young life experiences impacted his son had the dam scene been revealed a bit earlier. Flashbacks and different points of view are common devices in novels, but there is a risk in waiting too long for certain characters' individual stories to reveal themselves. A better editor could have realigned these timelines and made me love the story's inhabitants much sooner.
The reasons behind the actual honor killing by Alex were not drawn with very much depth. Yes, we know the basics - but for this loving son to have acted with a shallowly described motive mildly insults his emotions and internal conflict. One had to assume that his father had told him ugly stories about his own mother, rather poisoning him toward women, but we know that he was loathe do so. This area wasn't woven with much detail.
Ultimately, I did not feel much of a connection to any of the characters aside from Pembe. A mild point of irritation for me was that the author brought up conjoined twins who were of two different genders. One egg can split into identical twins, but obviously they must be of the same sex.
3.5 for the unusual topic and the surprises.
Good literature, a good story, stirs something in you besides emotion. This is because we, humans, learn though stories. Whether it is though the fables of Aesop or the narrative that the nightly news uses, stories are an integral part of your life. A good story, or to be more exact, a good presentation of story makes the listener or reader think, to move outside of herself, to move beyond the habit and culture that she knows. A
Disclaimer: I read this as an ARC via Netgalley. Thank you, Penguin.Good literature, a good story, stirs something in you besides emotion. This is because we, humans, learn though stories. Whether it is though the fables of Aesop or the narrative that the nightly news uses, stories are an integral part of your life. A good story, or to be more exact, a good presentation of story makes the listener or reader think, to move outside of herself, to move beyond the habit and culture that she knows. A good story tries to explain the unexplainable.
This is what Honour by Elif Shafak does.
At first glance, the book seems to be along the lines of Brick Lane - a story of two sisters, Pembe and Jamila – one of whom immigrants to London where she meets her eventual fate at the hands of her son. At second glance, the book looks like a fictional story about an honor killing in the United Kingdom. Both glances are right and both are wrong.
In many ways this book is similar to Brick Lane, though Pembe is not depressed and the story is more active, and it is about an honor killing. Yet the book's main focus is honor, but honor beyond that of the idea of honor that leads to what critics call "so called honor" murder. It is honor that sets the story in motion, long before the birth of Pembe, Jamila, or Pembe's children Iskender, Esma, or Yunus. It is an old honor code that effects the lives of Pembe, and her husband Adem, and not the type of honor you are thinking of as you read this.
The narrative is told though shifting viewpoints, covering most of the family members, and this choice puts the reader in a unique, and perhaps, disconcerting place. In her book about honor killings, Rana Husseini relates her encounters with the men in the families who sanctioned the killings of their female relatives or those men who killed the women. She wanted to understand or at least come close to an explanation of for the action. That is in part what Shafak does here. By using multiple viewpoints, by having the reader know a crucial outcome of the story, Shafak is able to get the reader to see what drove Iskender to the murder. The reader may not like Iskender but the reader does not feel hate towards him. In part because the reader can see the forces that move him – the racism in society, the displacement, the lack of a father figure, the choosing of someone to replace that figure, the rejection by family - that lead to the action. The reader can also see what saves his two siblings from making the same choices or reacting the same way. The society that is liberating for some can cause others to fail, fall, and crash if a safety net is not there.
I confess that I was somewhat surprised to see the viewpoint of Iskender but in many ways, his viewpoint is central to the novel. The first thing it does is stop the book from being like the movie of the week or the sensationalism that some news stories use. It goes deep, and the reader not only recoils in horror but also sorrows with pity and anger. There is a desire for change in the novel – change at every level not just in the family but in both types of societies – the Kurdish region of Turkey that Pembe and Jamila come from and the society of England that Pembe lives in. The sisters are let down by both even as other members of the family are supported by both.
Shafak's style not only invokes the settings of her novels, but she captures characters well, engages the reader without preaching to the reader. There is intensity in the writing, but there is also a story telling quality to it. In many ways, it feels like the reader is sitting with Shafak at table, on which sits sesame halva and tea.
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"Honor" - begins with a murder : a son stabs his mother, for that he suspects her of adultery, and for that he thinks it his duty to defend the honor of the family.
It is the last gesture, which explodes the consequences of a set of values, in which men are born for honor, and women - for shame.
It is something that happens in traditionalist Muslim communities, including immigrant communities.
The story
"Honor" - begins with a murder : a son stabs his mother, for that he suspects her of adultery, and for that he thinks it his duty to defend the honor of the family.
It is the last gesture, which explodes the consequences of a set of values, in which men are born for honor, and women - for shame.
It is something that happens in traditionalist Muslim communities, including immigrant communities.
The story is built from several perspectives - one of the killer son, imprisoned in the '90, but will continue with that of his sister, Esme, who wants to write about their family, especially the mother, and to preserve them somehow, his presence.
The third angle is offered by the narrator's gaze, which has acces to the past of the other characters.
By resorting to flashbacks, the narrator brings to the book stories that talk about traditionalist mentalities, and about how they conflict with individual needs, and freedom of choice.
Elif Shafak describes a complicated model of existence, in which immigrants from a culture with rigid norms - experience a culture shock, in the loan country, but they find themselves appreciating certain values and freedoms guaranteed here.
It is a book that credibly problematizes life situations, that in the extreme - lead to death.
A world where women have a bitter slice, whatever the context.
A distinction that will operate for three generation, one that begins to be erased by the voice of Esme - the writer-sister, who denounces the injustice of such stereotypes.
The majority of the story is told through the perspectives of Pembe, her identical twin sister Jamila, her children Iskender, Esma and Yunus, her husband Adem and her lover Elias. While primarily the book deals with the subject of honour killings, it is much more than that. It talks of how culture defines us and the things we d
A beautiful, gut-wrenching, multi-generational tale of love and honour that revolves around family values, deeply inscribed cultural misconceptions, dilemma and suffering.The majority of the story is told through the perspectives of Pembe, her identical twin sister Jamila, her children Iskender, Esma and Yunus, her husband Adem and her lover Elias. While primarily the book deals with the subject of honour killings, it is much more than that. It talks of how culture defines us and the things we do today are a result of inter-generational learning and suppression.
Elif Shafak is a natural storyteller and excels in building realistic characters - it was difficult not to feel compassion for even the most flawed of them. Her vivid storytelling helps you establish an instant connection with them and feel their deepest emotions.
Shafak also brings our focus to issues like racism, immigration crisis, sexism and substance abuse. Despite the seriousness of these topics, Shafak deals with them in an easygoing manner without making it triggering for the readers. Honestly, I'm upset that I only discovered Shafak now when she has been writing for years. I will definitely be adding more of her works to my TBR.
4 beautiful 🌟 for this beauty!
TW: Racism, Domestic Violence, Suicide, Death and Substance Abuse.
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Shafak's real strength is in domestic settings and intimate relationships: I would certainly read another novel that played to these, but 'Honour' feels like old ingredients in a new sauce.
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Those who see
Those who can but do not speak!" "To those who hear
Those who see
Those who can but do not speak!" ...more
As it seems now her favorite topic: Comparison between East & West, Muslims & the rest of the world, Elif Shafak is astonishing me with all the small details that only a person who lived in the two worlds will notice.
It's my 3rd read for her, i've started this book hoping she won't fail me, also I was so intimidated that it won't be about Arabs/Turks/Muslims who beat their wives, not respecting women and so.. That it would bring sh
Shafak is striking again in this magnificent novel! I loved it!As it seems now her favorite topic: Comparison between East & West, Muslims & the rest of the world, Elif Shafak is astonishing me with all the small details that only a person who lived in the two worlds will notice.
It's my 3rd read for her, i've started this book hoping she won't fail me, also I was so intimidated that it won't be about Arabs/Turks/Muslims who beat their wives, not respecting women and so.. That it would bring shame to us as if no one is respecting women except in the West! However she managed to have the balance between both cultures, what's considered an advantage/ a disadvantage here & there.. She had given a lesson to all our so-called feminist writers here to see how a woman can write about them so proudly, so sincerely, not deceiving her reader nor exaggerating!
And Alas! I loved her characters..each one of them was written not to be in papers, but to live in our hearts! From the start of the female grandma till we reached the beautiful twin,how they loved each other & their families, how their fates were magically swapped.. The children, the evolution of their characters .. The way most of the characters were expressing their feelings in terms of letters (instead of the rules in Forty Rules of Love, or short sentences of the manifesto in Bastard of Istanbul) explains other depths, other unexpected persons than the ordinary ones we thought we knew so well.. At the end, How she managed so smartly to prepare her reader for forgiveness, even if we couldn't tolerate it at first! And the way she beautifully illustrated the two love stories in the novel, one short with the innocence of young people, the other with the same innocence of mature people this time.
I can go one praising this novel for ever, but simply put Shafak is one of the best novelists I ever read for lately!
Note:
I was in Diwan & checked the Arabic translation of this novel that came in 2 volumes (not sure why while originally in 342 pages in English) ,I didn't like the translation at all.. Read it in English .. النسخة العربية بها سمٌ قاتل !
I enjoyed every single page of it and I can proudly admit that Im a huge Shafak fan right now.
I was absorbed for the four evenings I read this book until too late in bed. Had I had the time this would have been a 'sit down on a Saturday morning and read til it gets dark' kind of b
I absolutely loved this book. I loved everything about it. The characters are all completely believable, the story is one which will you will not want to see the end of while dying to know what actually happened, the writing is wonderful to read and the humanity of the story is so real as to feel --- well, real.I was absorbed for the four evenings I read this book until too late in bed. Had I had the time this would have been a 'sit down on a Saturday morning and read til it gets dark' kind of book.
The story is about a Turkish family in London.
It is about how the first generation of immigrant families struggle with the clashing cultures.
It is about how mothers and women in some cultures have roles others may find hard to understand.
It is about sisters and their love for each other which knows no bounds.
It is about faith and a belief that what will be will be, regardless of whether that is experienced as good or not.
And it is about the futility and hope in equal measure, of love.
And family. It is a lot about family. Good family and bad family and painful family and just crappy putting up with shit family.
And maybe just a little about forgiveness.
The story is about the Turkish family and their gambler father who leaves. And the mother who finds the possibility of love again, but cannot be allowed to bring dishonour to the family.
To paraphrase one of the lines which really hit hard: Men have honour, women have shame.
The honourable women woven through the book are the ones carrying shame which is not even theirs, while the very dishonourable men have no shame and are not expected too.
This book should be read by everyone and discussed. How we have a growing society in the 21st century in which this is the prevalent state of being frightens me.
I am all for religious and cultural freedom but the subjugation of women in this way makes me very sad and very angry.
But the story does not do this – I have done this after reading. There is no drum being beaten, no horse being flogged, not even a high horse being ridden in this story. It is just a very readable story that may make you think, or may not.
I loved it
I shall read more of this woman's work – I am a fan
His name translates into Alexander in the Western culture. I read the English copy of this novel.
Yet, besides the fact that I love the sound of Iskender, I found the title 'Iskender' so much more suitable as this Turkish-Kurdish guy who migrated to London as a child with his family is a mind-sticking character with his challenges to i
This novel was first written in English titled 'Honor', then translated into Turkish by Elif Shafak and named after the main protagonist of the novel, 'Iskender'.His name translates into Alexander in the Western culture. I read the English copy of this novel.
Yet, besides the fact that I love the sound of Iskender, I found the title 'Iskender' so much more suitable as this Turkish-Kurdish guy who migrated to London as a child with his family is a mind-sticking character with his challenges to integrate into a brand new culture.
Growing up into a young, handsome dude who loves listening to the Bee Gees ("How deep is your love for me") with his English girlfriend, he will not be able to escape the deeply rooted family tradition and obligation as a man to 'save the honor'.
Though his mom had given birth to Iskender with much hope and loved him dearly, it is again a little but important detail, which a mysterious fortune-teller by a creek will convey to Iskender's mother when she coincidentally meets her with her baby-boy before emigrating to London:
This boy ain't no good...
And dear me (!) have I been shocked by this boy's actions for the sake of 'saving the honor'!
You broke my heart, Iskender!! 💔💔💔😭
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Loved the story and how it dealt with the Misused concept of honor. How women are judged by it while the man can do something worse and still manage to escape the blame. It's a topic that will forever anger and sadden me.
loved some characters and felt for them .. except Tariq and Adem .. I hated those so much Specially Tariq what an Asshole.
Although I loved the story, it was boring at some points with some long descriptions ... It ma
My first Elif Shafak novel and it certainly won't be the last.Loved the story and how it dealt with the Misused concept of honor. How women are judged by it while the man can do something worse and still manage to escape the blame. It's a topic that will forever anger and sadden me.
loved some characters and felt for them .. except Tariq and Adem .. I hated those so much Specially Tariq what an Asshole.
Although I loved the story, it was boring at some points with some long descriptions ... It made me skim some parts just to get the story moving. I also think that the boredom I felt was the result of the narrative and how it kept changing all the time.
3.5/5 stars
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Honour covers many themes that of interest to me. Honour explores what it means to be an immigrant and still carries that culture within to a land that contradicts the community values. Honour explores issues on Muslim women in a traditional society. More in depth, it covers the irony of what men can do, and what Muslim women can't. How a son can be put in the place of an absence fathe
This book is published under the English Title called "Honour", not sure why this is not reflected on Goodreads.Honour covers many themes that of interest to me. Honour explores what it means to be an immigrant and still carries that culture within to a land that contradicts the community values. Honour explores issues on Muslim women in a traditional society. More in depth, it covers the irony of what men can do, and what Muslim women can't. How a son can be put in the place of an absence father to guard the honour of his mother and sister; how a man can fled with his mistress without redress and a women who elopes will be presented with a rope. Honour also explores a childhood with an absent parent and how the impressionable adolescence years and the company that he keeps, shapes the destiny of young Muslim men.
Shafak is an extraordinary writer. Vivid storytelling and employing patience to explore the psyche of each and every one of her characters in the novel. I savour every single word in Honour, a very rare thing I would do as I tend to speed read and sped through books. There is minor quibble that all her characters seems to carry a sad, melancholic and identical voice but that doesn't deter me from loving the book. I admit I didn't see the final twist coming and I was moved and my heart ached from reading the final chapter. Shafak has been longlisted for many book awards and I think it is time a writer as Shafak calibre deserves to be recognised. I will be rooting for the book to be shortlisted or win the Women Fiction Award 2013.
Personally, Elif Shafak looks set to be my favourite author. I will be reading her backlist.
read the rest of the review here: http://bibliojunkie.wordpress.com/201...
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Honour, a book that is not very popular compared to her other books, talks about how killing one person in the name of honour will also kill many.
A family that leaves it's roots and move to the UK, bracing the unknown and the uncertainties. The story is told by every member of the family, going back & forth b
Elif Shafak... She does it again. She picks up a controversial topic, dissect it, and brings a whole lot of emotions along with it... You don't know what hits you till it actually happens.Honour, a book that is not very popular compared to her other books, talks about how killing one person in the name of honour will also kill many.
A family that leaves it's roots and move to the UK, bracing the unknown and the uncertainties. The story is told by every member of the family, going back & forth between the present and the past, heading toward that eventful day, when one moment of blindness ruins everything about this family, and takes with it the innocence and the togetherness they all longed for.
Honour killing in patriarchal societies is real. And the idea that a sin is allowed for a male, but not allowed for a female is so deeply routed, that even as the story unfolds, it strikes a chord on how women live in an unjust world, and no matter what they do, their voice will never be heard.
You know what happens to the mother Pembe at the beginning of the book, so there is no spoiler. You know who did it. But what you wouldn't know is the twist at the end, which honestly I did not see coming. These last moments, these last chapters brought tears to my eyes.
Iskender was a kid, what he did was unspeakable, but toward the end... you will wonder: should he be forgiven for what he did?
I enjoy Elif Shafak's books for their topics, the writing, and her amazing storytelling. I am never disappointed by the intensity of her stories, and the surprising ending.
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Elif is a minority people writer i like to call her that, but this time the minority people were not in thier homes i didn't get to know thier true sufferings and the discrimination they felt in places they called home where other people think that they are more qualified to own a piece of land, thats why i didn't learn I didn't enjoy this book very much , i think because i read so many reviews about it, don't do it just make sure the book is good, coming with prejudices always ruins everything
Elif is a minority people writer i like to call her that, but this time the minority people were not in thier homes i didn't get to know thier true sufferings and the discrimination they felt in places they called home where other people think that they are more qualified to own a piece of land, thats why i didn't learn anything new
Even the honer killing in the story didn't reflect the real psychological motives behind it in real life
The only thing I enjoyed was the beautiful details about the personalities and the way they deltl with different situations although they were predictable and the only plot twist happened during the last 50 pages..
It wasn't the kind of novels you can't put down.
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I love how Elif Shafak never shy away from difficult complex subjects. 💗💗💗
Love the diversity of the plot which consist of family and relationship, morality and religion, ethics and one's principles. It slapped hard at certain part but the lesson and value behind it was somehow admirable. The ending was a bit sudden to me but overall I think it was fairly well written. 3.8 stars to be exact.
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