The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak

The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak

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

A brave and passionate novel * Paul Theroux *
Tremendous exuberance. . I do like a writer with a purpose * Margaret Forster *
An astonishingly rich and lively story … handled with an enchantingly light touch' Kirkus Reviews
Overflows with a kitchen sink's worth of zany characters … an entertaining and insightful ensemble novel that posits the universality of family, culture and coincidence -- (starred review) * Publishers Weekly *

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist, whose work has been translated into fifty-seven languages. The author of twenty books, fourteen of which are novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak's previous novel, THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY, was the UK’s bestselling literary hardback novel of 2025, selling over 500,000 copies. Her work has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, amongst others, and she is currently nominated for ‘Author of the Year’ at the British Book Awards. Elif Shafak was appointed President of the Royal Society of Literature in 2025. Her books have sold several million copies worldwide.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780241986448
ISBN 10	0241986443
Title	The Bastard of Istanbul
Author	Elif Shafak
Series	Penguin Essentials
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Penguin Books Ltd
Year published	2019-06-06
Number of pages	368
Prizes	Long-listed for Orange Prize for Fiction.
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.